Graduate Student Consortium

TEI2026 will host a Graduate Student Consortium (GSC) aimed at junior researchers currently in post-baccalaureate degree programmes (i.e., doctoral programmes in research fields, and master's programmes in the arts) in an area relevant to the Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction community. Traditionally the TEI GSC has focused on meeting other TEI graduate students as well as more experienced TEI researchers to share experiences and sharpen the research.

General information

The main event is a one-day session on Sunday, March 8 2026, during which the participating TEI GSC students will present their work to, and discuss their work with each other and with a panel of experienced TEI researchers. During this Sunday program, the key purpose is to have an informal and interactive discussion about each candidate's ongoing research, with the intention of sharpening it. Applicants to the GSC may be at various stages of their PhD research or graduate thesis, but should have a clear understanding of their driving research question, their research approach, including preliminary research design and methodology, and a goal for what they hope to gain from attending the GSC session.

The TEI '26 GSC is planned as a hybrid activity, allowing remote GSC participants to present and attend, and get the most out of the experience. Of course, only in-person attendance can offer the full 'tangible and embodied' experience, but we will do our utmost to support remote attendance the best we can.

GSC activities

The main GSC panel is planned to be held on Sunday, March 8, 2026, at the University of Chicago, John Crerar Library building. The day will start with a welcome and introduction by the GSC chairs. Then, each student will have to present and participate in a group discussion about their work. The day will end with a general discussion and wrap-up.

We are hoping to offer financial support to a limited number of Graduate Student Symposium participants based at US institutions. At this moment, there is no information yet about further potential funding (e.g. to support travel and accommodation) for GSC-attendees, but it will be posted on this website as soon as we know more. The conference registration fee for the accepted GSC attendees is planned to be waived.

Submission guidelines

GENERAL

Each applicant should provide a short written paper describing their ongoing research. The deadline for the paper is October 30, 2025 AoE.

The paper should clearly describe the research topic, covering the context and motivation, objectives, and central research questions. Also we require a brief but concise background description and literature review framing the research, a description and rationale of the approach to research design and methodology, and an overview of data collection and analysis methods. If possible and suitable, please also include a description of pilot, preliminary or selected results, framed in the context of your research questions. Finally, the paper should provide a brief timeline that gives insight into the activities done so far and those planned for the remainder of the doctoral research. Please also state your institutional affiliation (including the department) including your (main) supervisor and the amount of time left in your dissertation work.

The selection of GSC participants will be made by the GSC chairs. Accepted GSC papers will be published in the TEI Proceedings and in the ACM Digital Library.

FORMAT REQUIREMENTS & SUBMISSION PROCESS

The submission should be based on the new ACM submission templates also used for the TEI Papers Track (more information on the ACM templates can be found here and uploaded to the Precision Conference (PCS) system, which will be open in September. (Indication regarding length: If processed into the two-column output, please try not to exceed four pages excluding references). Please note that submissions to the TEI 2026 Graduate Student Consortium should NOT be anonymized.

All papers must be submitted electronically via the Precision Conference (PCS) website.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference.

Graduate Student Consortium Chair

gsc_chairs2026@tei.acm.org

Bart Hengeveld

TU Eindhoven

Ellen Yi-Luen Do

University of Colorado Boulder

For further questions, please contact the Graduate Student Consortium chairs at gsc_chairs2026@tei.acm.org