Conference Presentation Program

Purpose

The CHCI conference presentation funding program provides funds to help CHCI-affiliated faculty and students travel to top HCI conferences to present their research. This funding can be used to supplement funds from other sources, such as the Graduate and Professional Student Senate Travel Fund Program or CS Grad Council Travel Funding.

Eligibility

CHCI-affiliated faculty and students are eligible to apply. Applicants may receive no more than one award per year from this program.

Presentation Categories

Awards will be made based on four different categories of conference presentations, from highest priority to lowest priority:

• Category 1 ($1,000): The applicant is the presenting author of an accepted full paper at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
• Category 2 ($500): The applicant is the presenting author of an accepted full paper at one of the following top-tier HCI conferences:
  • ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)
  • ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST)
  • IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)
• Category 3 ($250): The applicant is the presenting author of an accepted peer-reviewed contribution other than a full paper (e.g., workshop paper, poster, demo) at ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, ACM UIST, or IEEE VR.
• Category 4 ($250): The applicant is the presenting author of an accepted full paper at an HCI-related conference other than ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, ACM UIST, or IEEE VR.

Budget

The current budget for this program is $10,000 per year. The total budget is allocated across the four top-tier HCI conferences identified in the presentation categories above:

• ACM CHI: $4,000
• ACM CSCW: $2,000
• ACM UIST: $2,000
• IEEE VR: $2,000

Timeline

To ensure awards are made based on the priority of the presentation categories above, applications will be evaluated based on the publication-ready timelines of the four top-tier HCI conferences identified. The next application period is:

• ACM UIST
  • August 13, 2026 - August 21, 2026
    • Priority will be given to full papers at ACM UIST.
  • August 22, 2026 - August 28, 2026
    • Priority will be given to other contributions at ACM UIST.
  • After August 29, 2026
    • Any remaining funds for this application period will be considered for full papers accepted at other HCI-related conferences.

Evaluation

Eligible applications will be evaluated with regards to their presentation category, acceptance notification, final reviews, camera-ready publication, whether the research was funded by another source (e.g., a federal grant), whether the research was funded by other CHCI funding programs (e.g., the user study funding program, the planning grant program) and whether that support was acknowledged, whether other sources of funding (e.g., Graduate and Professional Student Senate Travel Fund Program or CS Grad Council Travel Funding) have been applied for or received and how much, whether the applicant confirms that they will acknowledge CHCI’s support in their conference presentation, and whether the applicant agrees to present their research at the CHCI weekly seminar series after its completion. Due to the conference presentation program being highly competitive, the community engagement of applicants will also be considered when evaluating eligible applications.

Award Requirements

Awardees must follow their unit’s procedures pertaining to travel arrangements and reimbursements and will work with their unit’s financial manager/specialist to acquire funds from CHCI for up to the awarded amount. All reimbursements must be requested within 30 working days of the last day of travel for which reimbursement is requested.

Awardees are also required to acknowledge that their presentation was supported by CHCI in their conference presentation. This can be acknowledged by incorporating the CHCI logo into the presentation or including an acknowledgement statement: e.g., “This presentation was supported by the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech." Furthermore, awardees must agree to present their research at the CHCI weekly seminar series during the next semester.

Application Process

To apply, please complete the CHCI Conference Presentation Funding Application. Applications will usually be processed within one week of submission. If you have any questions about this form or program, please email the Director of CHCI: Ryan P. McMahan.