Student Research Competition

Info at a Glance

The Student Research Competition is a forum for undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their research, exchange ideas, and improve their communication skills.

All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.

Preparing Your Submission

A submission to the Student Research Competition should describe recently completed or ongoing student research in any of the topic areas covered by Mensch und Computer (MuC). Submissions should be original work that is neither in submission elsewhere nor already published in MuC nor another conference or journal. Abstracts should describe: 

  • The research problem and motivation for the work 
  • Background and related work 
  • Novelty of the research 
  • Research approach 
  • Results 
  • Contributions to the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

The SRC Submission

The submission contains the following parts:

  • An abstract using ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column, maximum of 4 pages excluding references)
  • A video describing and showing your project in 3-5 minutes. The video should be no longer than 5 minutes (.mp4 | 16:9).
  • Submit proof of student status, including a stamp from the university. This could be submitted by:
    • sending a note signed by your academic supervisor verifying your status, stating the name of the university/college, whether you were a graduate (i.e., Masters) or undergraduate (i.e., Bachelor level) when the work was done, and confirming that you are either currently registered in an academic program full-time or will return to be a student in the upcoming 180 days (starting submission deadline). 
    • any form of official document from the university (e.g., transcript of records, semester certificate, etc.) clearly showing that you were enrolled at the time of submission 

Formatting and Rules

  • All submissions must have a clear connection to HCI. Submissions without, for example, pure implementations or system architectures, cannot be considered. Guidance on possible types of contribution in HCI can be found in Wobbrock, Jacob (2012): Seven Research Contributions in HCI.
  • Submissions can be in German or English but should stay consistent across submission forms (PDF, video).  
  • The initial submission for this venue is *not* anonymized. Please include the name of the author(s) and the acknowledgement section, as they will appear in the camera-ready version of the abstract.
  • Student(s) must be enrolled in a university or college at the time of the initial submission deadline, not necessarily at the time of the conference.  
  • Submission can be made by undergraduate (Bachelors) or graduate (Masters) students. Prior research experience of the author(s) will be considered when reviewing the papers. 
  • Students can submit a single or team project with one designated presenter. At least the designated presenter has to register for and attend the conference. 
  • Supervisors are allowed as co-authors, but the student must present. 
  • Online submission: https://www.conftool.pro/muc2026/ 

Submission

Submissions are facilitated via the Student Research Competition category in Conftool. Authors may submit and edit their materials until the submission deadline. If you encounter any difficulties, technical problems, or have questions about this process, please contact the chairs at src@mensch-und-computer.de. 

Accessibility 

Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the DEI & Accessibility Chairs via accessibility@mensch-und-computer.de early in the writing process (the closer to the deadline, the less time the team will have to respond to individual requests). Papers flagged as inaccessible by a reviewer will have to be reassigned. Note that while we strive to match the best reviewer to each paper, the best reviewers for the work may not be able to review an inaccessible submission.

Inclusivity

Submissions should be prepared with an active consideration for the respectful use of language, particularly towards marginalised groups, such as those related to gender and disability.

Research Involving Human Participants

As a researcher, you have an overriding obligation to protect participants’ welfare and safety and to ensure they are treated fairly and with respect. We recommended the following document by the European Commission on „Ethics in Social Science and Humanities“ for a wider and deeper understanding of the underlying basic ethical principles and “Research Ethics in Ethnography/Anthropology.” These include doing good (beneficence), avoiding doing harm (non-maleficence), and protecting the autonomy, well-being, safety, and dignity of all research participants. Moreover, all researchers involving participants must meet the appropriate ethical and legal standards outlined in the ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

Use of Generative AI

All authors should be aware of the ACM Policy on Authorship, which articulates the authorized use of generative AI in submitted works. Text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM), such as ChatGPT, must be clearly marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s text. All authors are responsible for the content created by these tools; the use of the tools must be disclosed (e.g., in the acknowledgements), and the tool cannot be listed as an author. As such, authors are responsible for plagiarism, misrepresentation, fabrication, or falsification of content and/or references generated through the use of generative AI tools, and may be subject to penalties, such as a publication ban. We will investigate submissions brought to our attention and will reject papers where LLM use is not clearly marked.

Selection Process 

All submissions will be reviewed by members of the student research committee and rated according to the presented:

  • Problem and motivation: 5 points 
  • Background and related work: 5 points 
  • Approach and uniqueness: 10 points 
  • Results and contribution: 10 points 
  • Total possible score: 30 points 

The confidentiality of submissions is maintained throughout the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. 

Authors of all accepted submissions will receive instructions on how to submit the publication-ready copy of their abstract. The deadline and instructions for publication-ready submissions are emailed to accepted authors. This email will also contain instructions on how to notify the Student Research Competition and Accessibility Chairs of any necessary accommodations. Authors will also receive instructions by email about poster design for presentation at the conference. If the authors are unable to meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, they may be required to withdraw their submission from the program. 

Up to ten submissions in total will be chosen to participate in the competition at the conference. 

Upon Acceptance

The corresponding author of a conditionally accepted submission has to follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline. 

We will ask you to prepare a poster that you will present at the conference’s official poster presentation. Posters might also include QR codes to link to online materials (e.g., scenario videos and interactive prototypes). We require the poster to be A0 size. Posters should include (1) the title, authors’ names, and affiliations, (2) a concise overview of the research, (3) clear illustrations of key aspects of the work, and (4) a compelling visual design. 

For guidance on how to create a research poster, see this XRDS article by Lorrie Cranor. 

At the Conference 

For an accepted submission, one of the authors will give a presentation to selected judges and prepare a poster for the conference audience. 

After the Conference 

Accepted Student Research Competition abstracts will be published in the Mensch Und Computer Extended Abstracts Proceedings. They will be placed in the GI library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide. 

Prizes and Awards 

Students whose SRC submissions were accepted will be invited to present their work at the conference. SRC participants are guaranteed to be selected as Student Volunteers (SVs) which includes free registration. In addition, scholarships are available to cover both travel and accommodation.

The top three winners will be announced at the conference dinner. 

Best Practice Examples from recent years:

The papers linked below are provided as examples of the breadth of possible research topics, methodologies and contributions that fit within the scope of this call. They are not intended as “model” submissions to be exactly replicated. We encourage authors to pursue their own original topics and to select methods that best suit their research goals.