Dear authors of ICAS student papers,

thank you for indicating your interest in competing for the prestigious John McCarthy award (see below) that will be given to the author(s) of the two best student papers presented at the next ICAS Congress. There are 2 steps to the reviews and selection processes.

Step 1, your abstract will be reviewed by panel members of the ICAS track that pertains to the subject covered by the abstract. This review determines applicability and potential for a paper to compete for the McCarthy Award.

Step 2, each uploaded paper that supports the selected abstract from Step 1 for competition, will be reviewed by the Student Paper Review and Selection Sub-Committee. The paper must conform to the following qualifying criteria.

Qualifying criteria:

• The principal student author must be an undergraduate or postgraduate who will not have completed their degree for which the student is enrolled by the date of the Congress. The submitted paper must indicate what degree the author is striving for:
  • PhD
  • Masters
  • Undergraduate – Note: If there are joint student authors, the selected degree criterion marked on the paper must reflect the author enrolled in the highest degree to quality the paper for award competition.
• On or before the deadline (posted on the ICAS Website) the student author(s) must upload, via the ICAS Webpage, the completed paper for inclusion in the Congress proceedings. On submission of the paper, and on a random basis, the author(s) might be asked to have an official of the educational institution complete a verification form to substantiate that the paper represents original work of the student(s) and that it was completed within the past two years.
• If the paper has more than one student author, at least one must attend the Congress and present the paper in person.
• Typically, the top five finalists must present their paper(s) a second time during the Student Finalist Session. These finalists will each be offered a ticket to the Congress banquet on Thursday evening when Mrs. McCarthy, or her designee, will present awards to the winners.

Review criteria:

• The Student Paper Review and Selection Sub-Committee will base its best paper decision on the quality of the written paper and on the quality of the author’s presentation.
• No reference will be made to the curricula vitae of the student author(s).

Thank you for submitting your paper(s). The Student Paper Review and Selection Sub-Committee looks forward to reviewing your submittals.

Please direct any questions to the ICAS Secretariat.

Sincerely,
Karl Rein-Weston
Student Paper Review and Selection Committee Chair

As Background - The ICAS McCarthy Award is established for students working in scientific research in aeronautics. It is offered by Mrs. Camille McCarthy, the widow of Professor John McCarthy Jr. Professor McCarthy served for several years as a member of the Program Committee of ICAS, and, in his professional life, he keenly promoted younger scientists, technologists and engineers. The award (or awards), consisting of a certificate and a stipend will be given to the author (or authors, should there be more than one who satisfies the qualifying criteria) of the paper that demonstrates a quality of content and presentation judged to be the best or second best of the student papers presented at the Congress. At past Congresses, the presenter(s) received an honorarium in the range of €1,000 for the winner and €500 for second place. Should it prove difficult at the Congress to make a choice between papers of similar merit, the award or awards may, at the discretion of the judges, be divided equally between recipients.