Student Design Consortium (SDC)

IndiaHCI 2025 — Student Design Consortium (SDC)

The IndiaHCI SDC (student design consortium) 2025 invites student teams to tackle real-world challenges that align with our conference theme - Transhumanism in HCI (inspired by the SDCs at CHI 2024 & CHI 2025). 

All students are welcome to submit to the SDC track. Submissions to other tracks at IndiaHCI (such as papers, posters, and demos) do not impact submissions to the SDC track, and submissions to multiple tracks are encouraged.

Selected student teams will present their design solutions in person at IndiaHCI 2025 at IIIT Delhi, New Delhi.

Main goals of IndiaHCI 2025 

• Provide an opportunity for students from a variety of backgrounds (e.g., computer science, HCI, industrial design, product design, visual design, interaction design, etc.) to participate and demonstrate their problem-solving and design skills employing a myriad of approaches (design research, brainstorming, prototyping, implementation, and evaluation).

• Provide an opportunity for selected student teams. 

  • To present at the design competition at the conference and network with the broader HCI community in the Global South 

  • Help students strengthen their professional portfolios with an internationally reviewed project.

Important Dates

• May 15, 2025: Submission portal opens

• August 19, 2025: Early-Bird Submission Deadline (This will be the first deadline)                                                                                          

• August 26, 2025: Final Submission Deadline (This will be the second deadline)

• September 19, 2025: Authors will be notified of the decision. 

(Please note that there might be a delay in announcing the SDC results due to the large volume of submissions.) 

(All deadlines close at 23:59 IST)

Submission Details 

Forming teams

Teams must have 2 to 5  members, and every participant must be an enrolled student.

All levels of students can compete in the competition (Bachelor's and Master's). Students can create their teams across disciplines, degree programs, and universities. All students competing must be registered at their place of study for the academic year (2024-2025). There is no limit to the number of teams competing from any given university or organization.

All participating teams must submit a video pitch and an accompanying poster of their design solutions. Each team member must submit their student ID card for proof of student status.

Video submission

The videos should be uploaded to YouTube (providing us the link), and the video should be between 3 - 5 minutes long. Video can use animations, graphics, music, dance, anything creative, or have people speaking to the camera, etc, all forms are welcome. The videos must answer the questions in the design brief (below this section). Students can decide if their videos can be publicly available (via the SIGCHI blog).

Please follow the CHI2024 resources for more details on the video submission.

Poster submission

The poster size should be reduced to one standard letter page and submitted in PDF format. The file must be no larger than 10 Mb in size and must include:

• Proposed solution’s name, team name, academic affiliation(s)

• Perspective taken to address the design brief (answering the what, how, and why in the design brief)

• Clear illustrations of key aspects of your proposed solution

• Compelling, effective visual design

• Name and affiliation of mentor/supervisor (if relevant)

From the poster and video submissions, 5-6 finalists will be chosen by the SDC chairs to present at the conference. These finalists will compete for several SDC prizes awarded by an expert reviewing committee at the conference.

Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, submissions will be kept confidential 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, except title and author information, which will be published on the website before the conference.

The Design Brief

For the Student Design Consortium, we ask you to contribute to the Conference Theme - Transhumanism in HCI.

Context
Transhumanism envisions a future where human capabilities are augmented through technology, enhancing cognition, physicality, and perception. In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), this opens powerful, complex, and provocative design opportunities. From brain-computer interfaces and AI co-creativity to bio-integrated wearables and sensory augmentation, transhumanist ideas challenge boundaries between human and machine, body and interface, natural and artificial.

India HCI 2025 invites students to explore this speculative, ethically charged, and profoundly human terrain.

Challenge
How might we design HCI experiences that explore, critique, or extend transhumanist visions in a socially and culturally grounded way?

Design interactions, systems, tools, or speculative futures that:

• Enhance or alter human capabilities (e.g., memory, emotion, mobility, sensory perception)

• Mediate human-AI co-agency in everyday or extreme environments.\

• Rethink embodiment, identity, and accessibility through technology

• Question the ethical, cultural, or ecological implications of augmentation
  
  

Designs may be speculative, functional, or hybrid. Bold, imaginative, and critical thinking is encouraged.

Design Scope & Guidelines

Participants:
Open to students (undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD) in design, engineering, HCI, cognitive science, or interdisciplinary fields.

Suggested Directions:

• Brain-computer interface-based assistive tools
  
  

• Wearables for empathy, mood translation, or non-verbal communication
  
  

• Augmented cognition systems for learning or neurodivergent thinking
  
  

• Biodesign or cybernetic body extensions
  
  

• Cultural critiques of posthuman ideals
  
  

• Rituals, interfaces, or speculative artifacts for a post-human future
  
  

Submission Requirements:

• A design artifact (prototype, model, video, or interactive experience)
  
  

• A poster or presentation explaining the concept, process, and implications
  
  

• Optional: A speculative narrative or scenario
  
  

Student Design Consortium Selection Criteria

There are two rounds of the SDC this year. In the first round, student teams submit a video and poster based on the above design brief. Round one submissions are reviewed based on:

• How does the proposed design align with the given design challenge

• Clarity and credibility of design focus, problem, purpose, and solution relative to the chosen sustainable development goal(s)

• Originality and quality of the design solution, including claims, and their supporting evidence

• Innovation within the design process and the use of appropriate design methods

5-7 teams will be selected for round two. Teams selected in round one are provided feedback to finalize their designs, videos, and posters. The selection is juried, and the IndiaHCI chairs discuss the selection. The selected teams are invited to present their solutions in a conference (November 7- 9th at IIIT Delhi) session in the SDC track (for round two). At least one member of each selected team has to register for the conference and be present in person.

The presentation will be judged by an expert panel at the SDC in person. They will judge based on:

• Clarity and organization of the oral presentation

• Relevance and clarity of presentation material (e.g., slides, video, poster)

• The quality of the argument used to justify why the solution is worthy of consideration

• Quality, originality, and relevance of the design solution

Any queries regarding the SDC submissions should be directed to the SDC chairs - Anmol Shrivastava (anmol@iiitd.ac.in), Mritunjay Kumar (mritunjay.kumar@flame.edu.in)