This guide was heavily inspired by and shaped after similar guides provided by the CHI organizers (https://chi2016.acm.org/wp/guide-to-a-successful-paper-or-note-submission/), who deserve a great deal of thanks for providing such a thorough and rounded guide!
The main way of joining the HRI community is to submit a write-up of some new work or research you have done. It is then evaluated by a group of experts (peer review process) and, if accepted, you’ll have the opportunity to present it in a short talk at the conference. Depending on the kind of work you’ve done, there are a many different ways to get involved. This guide will give you a quick understanding of the different ways you can present your work at HRI.
The most rigorous kind of work is the Full Paper track (8 pages excluding references). It is similar to a journal publication in other fields, in terms of quality and rigor, and it is due on October 3rd. These papers typically present the outcome of several months or years of hard work, and are anonymous and thoroughly peer reviewed in a two-stage process. You can submit your work under one of the four specific themes (click here for details) to ensure that you get the most qualified reviewers for your submission.
Workshops are a great way to find your peer group! Let’s say you are interested in a specific topic, such as personal care robots for older adults or appearance design for robots — and you want to meet others with the same interest. Find a few people with similar interests at other institutions or companies, and submit a workshop proposal by October 3rd. Even for startups trying to find your lead users or people pushing the boundaries of your field, workshops can be a great way to find those people. Workshops can be half or full-day, and attract about 10-25 people. They’re collaborative events, about meeting new people and presenting early work in a field: if you want to teach people how to do something, then that’s a Tutorial.
But there’s a whole bunch of other ways to tell people about the work you’ve done! Read on.
Perhaps the most widely relevant is the Late-Breaking Reports track, due on December 5th. This is a chance to write up your early research (2 pages with references) and present it as a Poster at the conference. This is usually a smaller contribution than a full Paper and a great way to break into HRI.
We’ve also got several other venues due on December 5th:
- If you’ve been working on something you consider especially thought-provoking, controversial or methodologically unusual or risk-taking, you may want to think about writing an alt.HRI contribution, due on December 5th. alt.HRI subject matter often cuts across HRI themes and the discussion alt.HRI papers generate can be considered as important as the paper (8 pages including references).
- If you’ve done a great movie about your work, submit it to our Video category– and get a chance of winning the Golden Keepon Award! If you want to submit a specialized installation of some kind or want to show your robot in action, then you should submit to Demonstrations. If you’re a startup looking for a place to show off your robotic system or related software: this could also be a great place for you.
- December 5th is also the deadline for our Student Design competitions, an opportunity to submit novel, wacky, crazy, alternative or bizarre work which doesn’t fit into any other place.
Finally, HRI is a great place to meet new people, to build your network, and, importantly, to recruit the top talents in robotics, human-machine interaction, human factors, artificial intelligence, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences. We’re always looking for companies to get great visibility and show their support of cutting-edge research by Sponsoring the conference or Exhibiting their products in their own booth.