Human-Robot Interaction 2027 Student Design Competition

The HRI 2027 Student Design Competition is part of the 22nd Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, scheduled for March 8–12, 2027 in Santa Clara, California. Its competition-specific theme, “Robots in Public Spaces,” asks entrants to think beyond controlled laboratory settings and address human-robot interaction in complex shared environments.

The call welcomes physical robots, software-only systems, interaction concepts, and spatial or service designs for settings such as sidewalks, plazas, transit stations, and hospital lobbies. Proposals are expected to account for multiple stakeholders and bystanders, as well as the unpredictable social realities that arise when robots operate around the public.

Submissions take the form of a tightly scoped, design-centric extended abstract of up to four pages including references; they are not anonymous, and a video of up to three minutes is optional but strongly encouraged. Work in progress may be submitted when the remaining work can realistically be completed by the camera-ready deadline. The competition emphasizes rigorous design reasoning over costly hardware, making it a useful platform for teams developing thoughtful public-space HRI concepts.

Entry fee: No entry or submission fee is stated in the accessible current-year materials; any required conference registration or publication charges for accepted teams are not yet verified.