Submissions are now closed. Thank you everyone for your submission.

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Follow the above link to Precision Conference Solutions (PCS). Make an account and make a new submission to HRI → HRI 2025 → HRI 2025 PIONEERS. Good luck!

For any questions, please email us at [email protected].

Call for Submissions

Submission: Anonymized Extended Abstract

An anonymized, two-page extended abstract in which the applicant ties together their past, current, and/or proposed work, within the context of the overarching research question(s) addressed by their work. This may be followed by up to one page of references. The references page is not counted as part of the two-page total.

All papers for the conference must be submitted in PDF format and conform to the IEEE Proceedings specifications. Authors can find templates and other general guidelines regarding formatting under “Format and Submission” on the HRI submission instructions.

The extended abstract should cover:

• - a short (guideline: approximately 100-150 words) abstract. This “abstract in the abstract” is required for ACM Digital Library records,
• - key research questions addressed by the applicant’s research, drawing on past, current, and proposed work,
• - background and related work that informs the research,
• - the research approach and methodology, and
• - results to date (if any) and a description of remaining work.

For undergraduate students, a description of your own work on a previous project with clear ties to the field, potential implications, and proposed work is permissible. For graduate students, applications should include past work if applicable, current and future research plans, and an explanation of their relevance to a broader research question. Authors are strongly encouraged to consult prior years’ submissions to understand the scope and focus of HRI Pioneers submissions. Submissions should not be a shortened summary of any previous published work or in-submission work.

Publications should be fully anonymized at the time of submission. Please follow the anonymization guidelines for the main HRI conference, except for your own prior work section. As we encourage you to highlight your own prior work, please describe your prior works in first person but anonymize the work in the reference section. This can be done by omitting the Title and Author, for example: "[31] Title and authors omitted for anonymous review. 2020. In ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction."

In order to support those among us who need accessible PDFs, HRI is working to improve the accessibility of our PDF proceedings and review process. We are asking all authors to make an effort to make their submissions more accessible at every point in the submission process. Authors are encouraged to review the extended call for papers for detailed accessibility instructions.

Submission: CV

A two-page CV will be required as part of the submission process. Undergraduate students without laboratory experience can include coursework or skills that are relevant to their project. Graduate students should include laboratory experience and any publications/presentations that are applicable.

Submission: Personal and Diversity Statement

We value a diversity of perspectives, experiences, and research areas to be represented among HRI Pioneers. Therefore, the submission process will include a personal and diversity statement. How do you see your attendance and perspective benefiting yourself, your fellow Pioneers, and your Community? Examples of a community could be a local group (e.g. your school or hometown) or a broader affinity group (e.g. gender identity, ethnic background, country of origin, research community, etc.). If provided, the statement should be no more than 250 words. In particular, this statement may be used by the Program Committee to help differentiate among applications following the initial review and meta-review of the extended abstracts. Providing this statement is optional, and it will only be considered after reviewing the extended abstracts. The statement will only be shared within the organization of the workshop.

Submission: Sustainability Statement

Applicants are invited to share how their work fits in with the theme of the conference, Robots for a Sustainable World. If provided, the statement should be no more than 250 words. Like the Personal and Diversity Statement, this statement may be used by the Program Committee following the initial review and meta-review of the extended abstracts to help differentiate among applications and to identify applicants who would stand to benefit the most from attending the main conference. Providing this statement is optional, and it will only be considered after reviewing the extended abstracts. The statement will only be shared within the organization of the workshop.

REVIEW

The HRI Pioneers Workshop will evaluate submissions on the following criteria, in order:

• - The quality of the (anonymized) research statement. All submissions meeting the formatting guidelines will receive at least two reviews and one meta-review. These can come from HRI Pioneers Alumni and current industry or academic researchers in the HRI community. Reviewers will not share an institution with the applicant nor have access to the applicant's CV, personal and diversity statement, or sustainability statement. Reviews will cover the following sub-criteria: scientific merit, impact of current and/or proposed work, clarity of writing, and novelty, in addition to overall merit and fit.
• - The expected benefits of the workshop for the student's research and career. Many Pioneers will be working towards a milestone, such as an internship, research pivot, or graduation.
• - The student's contribution to a cohort that represents a diverse set of research topics, backgrounds, approaches, and perspectives. In practice: we do not expect more than two students to be invited per institution, nor do we expect a large subset of the cohort to be researching the same sub-field of HRI. In addition, we especially encourage students based in countries previously underrepresented in HRI Pioneers and students from groups historically excluded from HRI research to apply.

While we aim to provide support for travel and lodging expenses to accepted Pioneers, this is contingent on available funding and it is likely that not all Pioneers will be able to receive support. As our funding sources are separate for participants from US-based institutions and those from outside the US, the available support might differ between these two categories, and applications from US-based institutions may be considered separately from those from non-US institutions. We therefore encourage all non-US-based applicants to also apply for external travel grants to support their attendance, including those available through the main conference as well as student volunteer positions, for those that require this support. Furthermore, we will accept at least one undergraduate Pioneer, meaning undergraduate applications may be considered separately from graduate students.

PUBLICATION & ATTENDANCE

All students with accepted submissions are required to attend the full-day Pioneers Workshop. The following presentation components will be expected by the camera-ready deadline:

• - A one-minute "teaser" video showcasing the student and their work
• - A poster (size A0 portrait) that will be presented during both the Workshop and the Main HRI Conference
• - The camera-ready de-anonymized two-page abstract, which will be published in the companion proceedings to the HRI 2025 conference

A detailed program for the workshop and the participation guidelines for the poster session will be available after the camera-ready deadline. While the extended abstract will be part of the conference proceedings, it is generally not considered an "archival" publication, in that the proposed work can (and hopefully will!) later be submitted as a full conference or journal paper. Other contributors may be added as co-authors, but the presented prior and proposed work should be that of the applicant.