The HCII 2026 Student Design Competition invited enrolled undergraduate and graduate students to present a novel human-computer interaction design idea through a short video. HCI International hosted it within its 28th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in Montreal, with online participation also available.
Accepted videos were shown to an international jury during the conference. The 2026 submission window closed after the extended 27 March deadline, and official 2025 and 2026 editions establish an annual recurrence.
Benefits & funding
- Every accepted video was scheduled for presentation on-site and online during the conference.
- Three awardees received a plaque and certificate; the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes were USD 1,000, USD 500 and USD 250 respectively.
- Participation was self-funded: one contributing student from each accepted design had to register by 8 May 2026, and the regular-period student fee was USD 595.
Eligibility
- Applicants had to be current college or university undergraduate or graduate students; all grades were eligible.
- The official rules published no nationality or residency restriction.
- Each entry required an English-language MP4 video of up to five minutes, an SRT caption file and an English description of up to 300 words in DOCX or PDF format.
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Education required
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Application process
- 1Prepare a concise video explaining the design objective, method, innovation and outcome, then add synchronized English captions.
- 2Prepare the accompanying description within the 300-word limit.
- 3Submit the files through the HCII Conference Management System by the competition deadline.
- 4If accepted, arrange registration for one contributing student by the author-registration deadline.
Program timeline
Extended application deadline
27 March 2026
Review outcome notification
10 April 2026
Author-registration deadline for accepted designs
8 May 2026
Student design videos presented on-site and online
29–31 July 2026