HCI Across Borders: Paving New Pathways (Symposium@CHI18 )

List of participants online now

  • January 31st, 2018: submissions, new deadline February 9th
  • February 28th, 2018: reviews and decision notifications
  • March 31st, 2018: camera-ready versions
  • April 21st, 2018: symposium at CHI

Call for participation (pdf, 80k)

About HCI Across Borders (HCIxB): From 2016 to 2018
The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community at CHI is increasingly embracing research being performed on topics and in regions that have been under-studied in the past. To promote these efforts, the Development Consortium Workshop titled HCI Across Borders (HCIxB) was held at CHI 2016 in San Jose. With generous support from SIGCHI and in collaboration with Facebook and Google, it was attended by 70+ researchers from 20 countries across the globe. In 2017, this event was organized as a CHI Symposium to build on efforts from the Development Consortium at CHI 2016 and grow the community working in the area of HCIxB. For 2018, we would like to focus on opportunities for mentorship, which emerged loud and clear in both 2016 and 2017 as an area needing attention. Thus we invite participation from researchers in early stages of their careers working in areas that align with HCIxB. In this symposium, experienced HCIxB scholars will come together to provide feedback on the research being conducted by these early career researchers with the goal of assisting its maturation into potential publications at recognized (and relevant) HCI venues.

Once again, we solicit participation from HCI researchers and practitioners across the globe who work with underserved, underrepresented, and/or under-resourced communities. We particularly invite early career participants who are keen to pursue research opportunities and collaborations across borders. “Borders” may be interpreted as geographic boundaries, but also boundaries of other kinds, such as disciplines, methodologies, ideologies, and more. Research areas of focus can be diverse, including but not limited to learning, global health, crisis informatics, civic engagement, mobile banking, sustainability, and more.

While this is not an exhaustive list, examples of topics/themes of submission (based on topics in last year’s submissions) might include:

  • Chatbots for mental health and family counseling in Pakistan
  • Understanding workflows of HIV outreach workers in India
  • Creating e-mentorship opportunities that bridge the rural-urban divide in the US
  • Community-led video education for financial literacy in India
  • Bridging Social Computing and HCI for Development
  • And more!

Schedule (April 21, 2018)
Below is a tentative schedule that we intend to follow:
9.00-9.15: Opening Remarks
9.15-10.45: Session I (4 presenters and discussion by experts)
10.45-11: Tea/Coffee Break
11-12.30: Session II (4 presenters and discussion by experts)
12.30-2.00: Lunch
2.00-3.30: Session III (4 presenters and discussion by experts)
3.30-4.00: Break
4.00-5.00: Closing Keynote
5.00-5.30: Closing Remarks (and planning for the next HCIxB)

Submissions
Please submit a proposal (<= 6 pages excluding references in the CHI Extended Abstracts format) by January 31st, 2018 February 9th, 2018. We invite early-stage and mid-stage projects where presenters could seek actionable feedback from the panel of experts. You will receive a decision by February 28th, so that you can plan your registration and travels (including visa arrangements) accordingly. Camera-ready versions will be due on March 31st. Please note that the accepted submissions will not be indexed in the ACM DL, to ensure that the authors of accepted submissions can incorporate feedback from experts to submit papers in HCI conferences.  

Your proposal must include the following:

  • Who are you? Please include your department, year of study, etc.
  • What is the context and motivation that drives your research?
  • What are your research goals/questions?
  • What is the state of the art in terms of prior research in the area?
  • What is your research approach? What methods are you using/do you plan to use?
  • What have you found thus far?
  • What is the status of your research?
  • What are the expected contributions of your work?

In addition, please include the following in your PDF:

  1. A letter of nomination from a faculty advisor that addresses why you should attend this symposium
  2. A one-page curriculum vitae

All submissions will be reviewed by the organizers. They will be selected in accordance with their potential to contribute to the Symposium and to foster discussion and growth among the participants. Accepted submissions will be available on our website before the conference. Authors of accepted submissions will also be invited to bring posters of their proposals at CHI (although not mandatory). Based on accepted submissions, we will invite seasoned HCI researchers in relevant areas to provide rich feedback to symposium participants.

We also encourage participation from early PhD students to listen to the presenters and experts, and participate in the follow-up discussions. If you are interested in just attending (and not presenting), please submit a 1-page statement of expected benefits of participation for yourself and other participants (What will you gain? What will you give?) and 1-page CV.  For funding, please note that we will give precedence to presenters over attendees.  

Please submit your PDFs at hcixb18.hotcrp.com

Bursaries
We are working on obtaining funding to pay travel expenses (or at least a portion thereof) for attendees in need, though we should clarify beforehand that this is going to be a challenge this year. Please note that CHI guidelines require that at least one author of each accepted submission to attend and be registered for the symposium.

Organizers
Neha Kumar, Georgia Tech (USA)
Kurtis Heimerl, University of Washington (USA)
David Nemer, University of Kentucky (USA)
Naveena Karusala, University of Washington (USA)
Aditya Vashistha, University of Washington (USA)
Susan Dray, Dray & Associates (USA)
Christian Sturm, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
Laura S. Gaytan-Lugo, University of Colima (Mexico)
Anicia Peters, Namibia University of Science and Technology (Namibia)
Nova Ahmed, North South University (Bangladesh)
Nicola Dell, Cornell Tech (USA)
Jay Chen, NYU-Abu Dhabi (UAE)

Contact
For updates, please check http://www.hcixb.org
Email us your questions at admin@hcixb.org