Student Design Challenge

Event	Deadline
Submission Deadline	Mon, Dec 1, 2025, AoE
Notification of Acceptance	Wed, Dec 10, 2025, AoE
Camera-Ready Deadline	Wed, Dec 17, 2025, AoE
TEI 2026 Conference	March 8 - 11, 2026

The TEI 2026 Student Design Challenge (SDC) is a juried track that invites students to explore new ideas at the intersection of technology, design, and the body. Through interactive prototypes, speculative artifacts, and creative interventions, students present their visions for the future of tangible and embodied interaction.

Unlike traditional research papers, SDC submissions can emerge from course projects, early-stage concepts, or speculative explorations, making it an ideal venue for students to contribute to the TEI community, regardless of academic background or research experience.

Why Submit to the SDC?

The Student Design Challenge is a unique opportunity to share your ideas, build your portfolio, and connect with the international HCI community: no matter where you are in your academic journey.

Whether you're in high school, undergrad, a master's program, or just beginning your PhD research path, SDC welcomes early-stage, course-based, or exploratory projects. Think of it as a "junior doctoral consortium": a place to get feedback, showcase your creativity, and begin building a long-term presence at TEI and in HCI.

To mark the 20th TEI annual conference, we're working to make SDC more welcoming, especially for undergraduate and master's students. If you've ever wanted to contribute to TEI, this is your chance to get started.

SDC 2026 Theme: Sensory Rituals

This year's Student Design Challenge invites submissions on the theme of Sensory Rituals: exploring how tangible interactions and sensory experiences can support our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Rituals need not be religious or traditional. We welcome broad interpretations that reflect the everyday practices people create to feel grounded, connected, or transformed. These might include but not limited to:

Personal or collective lifestyle rituals that bring structure or calm
Wearable or interactive artifacts that anchor attention or soothe the senses
Cultural practices reimagined or supported through sensory technology
Tools for reflection or mindfulness, like scent-based journaling, tea preparation, breathwork, forest bath, citywalk or multisensory meditation

We encourage you to think about how technology, design, and sensation can come together to create new kinds of rituals, or to deepen old ones. What do we as individuals, communities, or cultures need in today's world? What role can tangible and sensory interactions play?

Whether subtle or speculative, practical or poetic, scientific or aesthetic, we're excited to see how your ideas respond to this year's theme.

Important Dates

Final Submission Deadline: Mon, Dec 1, 2025. Submit your 2–4 page paper via the PCS Submission System.
Notification of Acceptance: Wed, Dec 10, 2025. Authors will be notified of their acceptance status and receive feedback from the SDC Chairs.
Publication-Ready Deadline: Wed, Dec 17, 2025. Final papers and materials must be submitted using the ACM templates.
Early Registration Deadline: Wed, Jan 28, 2026. Register by this date for the lowest conference rate.

Optional Notification of Intent (rolling): September 1 – November 1, 2025. If you're considering submitting and want a first round of informal feedback, we encourage you to send an Optional Notification of Intent via email to sdc_chairs2026@tei.acm.org during this period. Teams who do so will receive one round of feedback from the SDC Chairs within two weeks of submitting intent, giving teams time to refine their ideas before the final deadline. (Note: Notifications of intent are non-binding: they simply help you get early input on your direction.)

Eligibility and Guidelines

The Student Design Challenge is open to students at all academic levels, including high school, undergraduate, master's, and PhD.

Teams may include up to 5 student members.
Only students may be listed as authors or team members. Faculty advisors, postdocs, and mentors may be acknowledged in the paper's Acknowledgements section, but they cannot be co-authors.
There is no limit to the number of teams that may enter from the same school or university.

This challenge is designed to support student-led ideas and collaboration. Whether you're just starting out or nearing the end of your degree, we encourage you to submit!

Submission Details

To keep the Student Design Challenge accessible and student-friendly, submissions consist of a short paper only (no need for a full-length research article).

What to Submit

A 2-4 page paper (excluding references), using the ACM Master Article Submission Template (single or double column). (We recommend Zotero for managing your references.)
Submit your paper via the PCS Submission System.
Submissions to the SDC must be original and must not be simultaneously submitted to other conferences, journals, or other tracks of TEI 2026.

Note: Longer papers are not necessarily better. A focused, well-communicated 2-page submission is just as welcome as a 4-page one. We're looking for clarity, creativity, and connection to the theme: not length for its own sake.

What to Include

A clear description of your idea, its motivation, and how it might be used.
A brief explanation of how your project relates to the 2026 theme: Sensory Rituals.
Visuals, sketches, diagrams, or pictures to help explain your concept.
An Acknowledgments section to credit anyone outside the team who supported the project (e.g., instructors, advisors, or peers). Please also include a brief declaration of any use of AI tools, specifying how they were used (e.g., brainstorming, writing assistance, image generation) and to what extent. This transparency helps uphold academic integrity and supports fair evaluation.
A note indicating whether you intend to present in person or remotely (via Zoom).
Full author names, affiliations, and contact information. Submissions are not anonymous.

Don't worry about writing a perfect academic paper. Focus on communicating your idea clearly and creatively: that's what matters most.

Examples of Past Projects

Magic Tag. Carla Griggio, Germán Leiva, Olivier Perret, Víctor Valle Juarranz. 2014. (Jury Award, Best Show Award; Master's & Undergrad team)
Redycler: Daily Outfit Texture Fabrication Appliance Using Re-Programmable Dyes. Ritik Batra and Kaitlyn Yi Ran Lee. 2022. (Best Motivation Scenario Award; Undergrad team)
Morphess. Consuelo Valdes, Heidi Wang, Taili Feng, Annie Wang. 2011. (Undergrad team)
The Tissue Fabricator. Caron Thomas, Alina Koshy, Anusha Samal, Anahad Kaur Hanspal. 2022. (High school team)
WonderMap: Capturing and Connecting the Edges of Cultures. Tianqin Lu, Anniek Jansen, Sichen Guo, François Leborgne. 2024. (Master's & PhD team)
Behave-Knit: Sustainable Integration of Pneumatic Actuators in Knitted Wearables. Lingxiao Luo. 2025. (Solo PhD team)

Funding

This track does not provide travel funding. However, students are encouraged to independently apply for the Gary Marsden Travel Award, which is open to all students regardless of whether they submit to the Student Design Challenge. Please note that the travel award has its own application process and deadlines, which may occur before the SDC submission deadline. Be sure to read the Gary Marsden Travel Award page carefully and apply early if needed.

Awards

A limited number of submissions will be recognized for their outstanding quality and contribution to student design. One project will receive the Best Student Design Award, and one additional project may be selected for an Honorable Mention, at the discretion of the SDC Chairs.

Selection Process

All submissions will undergo a juried review process conducted by the Student Design Challenge Chairs. Confidentiality will be maintained throughout the evaluation process.

Submissions must be original and not under consideration for any other conference, journal, or track at TEI 2026. Submissions that are not accepted will be kept strictly confidential and will not be disclosed or published.

Upon Acceptance of Your Submission

Contact authors of accepted papers will receive detailed instructions for preparing and submitting the final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline. Submissions that do not meet these requirements by the deadline may be removed from the program. For any questions related to the publication process, please contact publications2026@tei.acm.org.

The final version must follow the official ACM publication templates (LaTeX or Word). Templates are available on the ACM website. For technical assistance with formatting, please email publications2026@tei.acm.org.

Accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library as Extended Abstracts. In addition to the publication-ready paper, each team will be required to:

Submit a 1-minute video explaining the project (a narrated slide or simple walkthrough is fine).
Present the project at TEI 2026 as part of the SDC Exhibition (either in-person or remotely).
Prepare a poster, physical prototype, interactive artifact, or demo. This can be a speculative object or mockup (full functionality is not required).

At least one team member must register for and attend the TEI 2026 conference, either in person or via Zoom. If needed, the ACM can provide visa support letters for authors of accepted Student Design Challenge submissions, as well as for all registered attendees. Please refer to the TEI 2026 website for instructions on how to request a letter.

Accepted SDC projects will be published in the ACM Digital Library as Extended Abstracts, which are considered semi-archival. This means that your project can still evolve into a full-length paper in the future without issue, as long as substantial new work is presented. Participating in the SDC won't prevent you from developing your ideas further for future publication.

To help foster community and connection among SDC participants, we are planning an informal social event (in person and/or virtual) for selected teams. More information will be shared following acceptance.