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.

  • Submission deadline: July 9th, 2024
  • Notification: July 16th, 2024
  • Publication-ready deadline: July 30th, 2024

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. 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 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 3-5min. The video should have a maximum of 5 min. (.mp4 | 16:9) 
  • Submit proof of student status, including a stamp of the university. This could be submitted by:
    • sending a note signed by your academic supervisor verifying your status, stating the name of 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 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 HCI connection. Submissions without, e.g., about implementations or system architectures, cannot be considered.
  • Submissions can be in German or English but should stay consistent for submission forms (pdf, video).  
  • The initial submission for this venue is *not* anonymized. Please include the name of the author(s) and the acknowledgment 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 or graduate (Masters) students. Prior research experience of the author(s) will be taken into account when reviewing the papers. 
  • Students can submit a single or team project with one designated presenter. At least the designated presenter has to register to and attend the conference. 
  • Supervisors are allowed as co-authors, but a student needs to present. 
  • Online submission: https://www.conftool.com/muc2024 

Submission

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

Accessibility 

Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. Video submissions should follow the SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Video. 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 towards the respectful use of language, particularly towards marginalised groups, particularly around 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-malificence), and protecting the autonomy, well-being, safety, and dignity of all research participants. Moreover, all researchers involving participants must meet appropriate ethical and legal standards as outlined in the following document: ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

Use of Generative Tools

All authors should be aware of the ACM Policy on Authorship, which articulates the authorised 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 could be sanctioned with 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 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 

Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during 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. Deadline and instructions regarding publication-ready submissions are emailed to accepted authors. This email will also contain instructions of 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, the venue Chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the 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 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 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 submission was accepted will be invited to the conference and get refunded for registration and transportation costs, after prior approval for the total cost. Accommodation costs can be fully funded if SRC applicants additionally apply for an SV job (we have saved spots for SRC applicants). Please note: There is funding for one person per submission. The top three winners will be announced during the conference. 

Best Practice Examples