A Word on Selection:
Initially the conference was planned for 8 graduate papers, however, the quality of the submissions indicated that more should be included. The decision was then made to increase the number to 12 papers by adding another morning session. All papers underwent blind review by a small selection committee that made their recommendations to the conference director. While it seems that many graduate conferences have a policy of excluding their own students from consideration, this conference did not take such measures and evaluated all submissions with the same criteria, and under blind review, regardless of their origin.