HCIPAI Awards 2026

Recognising outstanding achievements in Human-Computer Interaction in India

HCIPAI is proud to announce the HCIPAI Awards 2026 – our annual programme celebrating excellence in HCI design, student innovation, and academic research in India. Winners will be announced at IndiaHCI 2026, hosted by IIT Hyderabad on 29–31 October 2026.

Submit Your Entry


What do you get?

  1. Best Industry Design Project: For HCI design of products or services designed in India, demonstrating measurable impact on real users.
  2. Best Student Design Project: For academic HCI projects completed as part of a curriculum at an India-based institution, demonstrating innovation and design rigour.
  3. Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026: Jury-selected from papers accepted and presented at IndiaHCI 2026. No entry required-authors of accepted papers are automatically considered.
  4. Best Indian HCI Paper at International Venue: Recognising Indian-affiliated researchers published at peer-reviewed international HCI or design conferences.
  5. Best HCI Thesis / Dissertation: For outstanding undergraduate or postgraduate HCI theses from India-based institutions. For outstanding undergraduate or postgraduate HCI theses from India-based institutions.
  6. Best HCI Teaching Innovation: Recognising specific teaching innovations within university-affiliated HCI degree programmes.


What Honourees Receive?

All honourees

  • Certificate of recognition
  • Use of the HCIPAI Awards logo
  • Listing on the HCIPAI website
  • Social media recognition by HCIPAI

Top 5 finalists -Industry, Student Design Project & Best HCI Thesis categories

  • Invitation to present at IndiaHCI 2026 (29–31 October, IIT Hyderabad)
  • Opportunity to display your project at IndiaHCI 2026


Student Design Project & Best HCI Thesis-prize money

Prize money is awarded in each student category independently.


Conference registration is refunded after the student winner attends IndiaHCI 2026. Refund applies to the standard delegate registration rate.


Eligibility

All entries must relate to work completed, published, or examined between

1 July 2024 and 30 June 2026.

1.Best Industry Design Project

  • The product or service designed must be live, in active deployment, or in a well-advanced stage of rollout.
  • Must demonstrate a clear focus on human-centred design and user experience.
  • Must have been primarily designed and implemented in India, or designed specifically for Indian users.
  • Open to product teams, design agencies, and independent consultants.

2. Best Student Design Project

  • Must have been submitted as part of an academic curriculum at an India-based institution.
  • Must be accompanied by an endorsement letter from the supervising faculty member.
  • The academic institution must be based in India.

3. Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026

  • No entry required. All full papers accepted and presented at IndiaHCI 2026 (29–31 October, IIT Hyderabad) are automatically considered.
  • The jury selects the winner from accepted papers. Authors are not required to take any action.
  • Winner announced at the closing session of IndiaHCI 2026.

4. Best Indian HCI Paper at International Venue

  • At least one author must be affiliated with an India-based academic institution at the time of publication.
  • The paper must have been published in a peer-reviewed international HCI or design conference or journal.
  • Beyond CHI participants: Authors who present at the HCIPAI Beyond CHI 2026 event (May 2026) are automatically eligible and will be contacted by HCIPAI.
  • Other international venues: Authors may self-nominate via the entry form. The jury determines venue relevance.

5. Best HCI Thesis / Dissertation

  • Eligible degrees: B.Des, M.Des, M.Tech (HCI or related), or equivalent undergraduate / postgraduate thesis. PhD theses are not eligible.
  • One institution can submit only one thesis entry per award cycle.
  • May be submitted by the student or their thesis supervisor.
  • A signed endorsement letter from the Head of Department or Institute Director is mandatory. Submissions without this endorsement will be automatically disqualified.
  • The nominating institution must be based in India.

6. Best HCI Teaching Innovation

  • Open to faculty members, educators, or academic departments at India-based universities, deemed universities, or autonomous institutions affiliated to a university.
  • The teaching innovation must be part of a full-time degree programme of minimum 2 years duration. Certificate courses, bootcamps, short courses, and non-degree programmes are not eligible.
  • Nominations celebrate a specific teaching innovation-a new course, curriculum design, pedagogy, studio methodology, or assessment approach. Self-nominations only.


Judging Criteria

A panel of HCI experts evaluates all submissions. We welcome and value honest, well-evidenced submissions.


1. Best Industry Design Project

  • Human-centred process: Evidence that real users shaped the design through research, testing, or iteration.
  • Clarity of problem and solution: A well-defined problem and a solution that directly addresses it.
  • Design craft and originality: A meaningful, well-executed interaction model, visual system, or design pattern.
  • Real-world context and deployment: Evidence that the design was built for or deployed in a real context in India.
  • Outcomes for users and business: Evidence that the design improved things for users and/or the organisation – qualitative or quantitative evidence equally welcome.
  • Indian context: The design reflects specific needs, behaviours, languages, or infrastructure realities of Indian users.


2. Best Student Design Project

  • Problem framing: Clear articulation of the HCI problem, its significance, and the target user group.
  • User research and empathy: Genuine engagement with users, not just assumptions.
  • Design process and iteration: Evidence that the solution evolved through research and feedback.
  • Quality of the solution: A well-designed, feasible response to the problem.
  • Presentation and communication: The project is clearly and persuasively communicated.

Student entries are evaluated in the context of academic resources and constraints – not held to industry production standards.

3. Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026

  • Research contribution: Novelty and significance of the contribution to HCI knowledge.
  • Rigour: Soundness of methodology; credibility and depth of evidence.
  • Relevance to Indian HCI:Extent to which the paper addresses challenges, populations, or contexts specific to India.

Jury drawn from the IndiaHCI 2026 programme committee. No entry required from authors.

4. Best Indian HCI Paper at International Venue

  • Research quality: Methodological soundness and credibility of findings.
  • Venue and reach: Peer-review rigour of the publication venue; evidence of broader recognition.
  • India relevance: Extent to which the work addresses Indian users, contexts, or design challenges.

Venue prestige is considered but not determinative – strong work at smaller venues is eligible. Jury has full discretion on venue relevance.

5. Best HCI Thesis / Dissertation

  • Research rigour: Grounded in genuine user research with a clearly articulated methodology.
  • Design qualit: Well-conceived, well-crafted, and feasible design outcome.
  • Original contribution: Advances knowledge, practice, or pedagogy in HCI in a meaningful way.
  • India relevance: Addresses Indian users, contexts, or HCI challenges specific to India.

Undergraduate theses evaluated relative to level of study and available resources, not held to postgraduate research standards.

6. Best HCI Teaching Innovation

  • Innovation in approach:The teaching method, curriculum, course, or pedagogical framework is meaningfully new or exemplary — not a standard offering.
  • Impact on students: Evidence that students have been meaningfully equipped with HCI knowledge, skills, or research capability as a result of this innovation.
  • Commitment to research rigour : The innovation promotes evidence-based, research-informed HCI practice within a formal degree programme.
  • Reach and replicability:Scale of influence; potential for adoption by other institutions in India.

Jury will look for clear evidence of how the innovation distinguishes itself from standard course delivery and its measurable effect on student learning outcomes.


How to Submit?

Category 3 (Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026) requires no submission.  

All authors of accepted IndiaHCI 2026 papers are automatically considered. The jury selects the winner from the full paper programme.


For Category 4 (International Venue), Beyond CHI participants: If you presented at the HCIPAI Beyond CHI 2026 event, you will be contacted directly by HCIPAI. You do not need to submit the form unless you wish to provide additional materials.

For Category 5 (Best Thesis): The student or their thesis supervisor submits the nomination. A signed HOD / Institute Director endorsement letter must be uploaded as part of the submission- entries without this will be automatically disqualified.


  1. Complete the HCIPAI Awards 2026 Entry Form, select your category; the form will show only the relevant questions.
  2. Upload your supporting documents and visual assets to the HCIPAI Awards 2026 Google Drive folder, the link is provided within the form.
  3. Complete your entry fee payment at account.indiahci.org. Only entries with completed payment will be evaluated.


What to include- Categories 1 & 2 (Industry and Student)

  • Project title and one-line summary (max 30 words)
  • The problem: what was wrong or missing, and who was affected (150–300 words)
  • The solution: what was designed and the key decisions behind it (150–300 words)
  • Visual evidence: 3 to 8 images or a short video (max 3 minutes)
  • Outcomes: what changed for users; any evidence, formal or informal (100–200 words)
  • Indian context: how Indian realities shaped your design decisions (100–200 words)
  • Signed declaration of originality and IP rights
  • AI use disclosure
  • Industry only: Any available link to the product, live product URL, app store listing, product website, feature description page, case study, or press release. If the product is confidential or not yet publicly available, a brief description of the deployment context is sufficient. This field is optional, no link is required to submit.
  • Student only: Supervisor endorsement letter (PDF, uploaded to Drive)


What to include – Category 4 (International Paper, self-nominees)

  • Paper title, publication venue, DOI or URL
  • Whether the paper was presented at HCIPAI Beyond CHI 2026
  • Brief statement on India relevance (100–150 words)
  • PDF of the paper if behind a paywall (uploaded to Drive)


What to include – Category 5 (Thesis, submitted by student or supervisor)

  • Student name, degree, institution, year of thesis submission
  • Thesis title and a brief abstract
  • Statement on the thesis’s significance and contribution to HCI (200–300 words)
  • PDF or repository link to the full thesis
  • Supervisor name and contact details
  • Signed HOD / Institute Director endorsement letter (mandatory) – uploaded to Google Drive.

Submissions without this are automatically disqualified.


What to include – Category 6 (HCI Teaching Innovation)

  • Nominee name (person or programme), institution, and role
  • Name of the degree programme and its duration (must be minimum 2 years, full-time, university-affiliated)
  • Description of the specific teaching innovation being nominated (200–400 words), what is new, why it was developed, how it was implemented
  • Evidence of impact, student outcomes, assessment results, publications, testimonials, or reach


File formats: PDF for documents · JPG or PNG (min 1200px wide) for images · MP4 (max 3 min, max 500 MB) for video.

Timeline


Shortlisted finalists are encouraged to register for IndiaHCI 2026 promptly after the shortlist announcement on 15 October. Early bird conference registration rates may still be available – check indiahci.org for current rates. Student prize winners receive a conference registration refund.


All deadlines and discounts apply equally to all six award categories. Discounts stack with membership rates – submit early and as a member for maximum savings.

Application Fees

Student entries

Industry entries

Research and academic entries

Corporate membership pays for itself.

HCIPAI Corporate Membership is ₹2,00,000 + GST for 10 years – approximately ₹20,000/year. At ₹2,500 per entry, a corporate member submitting just 4 entries per year saves ₹30,000 in entry fees – well above the annual membership cost -0 before counting discounts on conference registrations for up to 8 employees. Individual membership gives a ₹2,000 discount per entry; corporate membership gives ₹7,500 – making it the clear choice for any organisation that submits regularly.


To receive member or corporate discounts, register using your organisation email ID.

Only entries with completed payment will proceed to evaluation. Fees are non-refundable except within 48 hours of payment.

Early Bird discounts apply to all categories – see Timeline for deadlines.

Pay Entry Fee

Become a Member


Terms & Conditions

Welcome to the HCIPAI Awards 2026, organised by the HCI Professionals Association of India (HCIPAI). By submitting an entry, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions.

1. Eligibility

  • Category 1: Best Industry Design Project: Open to professionals and teams working in HCI design, submitting commercially launched, actively deployed, or well-advanced-stage products or services primarily designed for Indian users. Enterprise products with phased rollouts are explicitly eligible.
  • Category 2: Best Student Design Project: Open to students enrolled in undergraduate or postgraduate programmes at India-based institutions, submitting curriculum projects with supervisor endorsement.
  • Category 3: Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026: Open to all authors of full papers accepted and presented at IndiaHCI 2026. No entry required, jury selects from the full programme.
  • Category 4: Best Indian HCI Paper at International Venue: Open to researchers with at least one India-based institutional affiliation, published at a peer-reviewed international HCI or design conference or journal between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2026. Beyond CHI 2026 presenters are automatically eligible; others may self-nominate.
  • Category 5: Best HCI Thesis / Dissertation: Open to students who have completed a B.Des, M.Des, or M.Tech thesis (or equivalent) at an India-based institution. PhD theses are not eligible. The submission may be made by the student or their thesis supervisor and must be accompanied by a signed endorsement letter from the Head of Department or Institute Director, submissions without this endorsement will be automatically disqualified.
  • Category 6: Best HCI Teaching Innovation: Open to faculty members, educators, or academic departments at India-based universities, deemed universities, or university-affiliated institutions. The nomination must relate to a specific teaching innovation within a full-time degree programme (or equivalent diploma recognised by the Ministry of Education, Government of India) of minimum 2 years duration.

All work (except Category 3) must have been completed, published, examined, or implemented between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2026.

2. Submission guidelines

  • All submissions must be original work.
  • Submissions must be made through the official HCIPAI Awards 2026 entry form, except Category 3 which requires no entry.
  • Collaborative entries must nominate a single designated submitter who accepts responsibility for the entry.
  • Submissions must not be simultaneously entered in another awards programme.
  • For Category 5, the submission may be made by the student or their thesis supervisor. A signed HOD / Institute Director endorsement letter is mandatory and must be uploaded with the submission.
  • HCIPAI reserves the right to reassign an entry to a more appropriate category.
  • Any false or misleading claims in a submission may result in immediate disqualification. HCIPAI reserves the right to take further action where applicable.

2A. Category 3 – Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026

  • This award is non-applied-for. Authors of accepted IndiaHCI 2026 papers do not need to take any action.
  • The jury is drawn from the IndiaHCI 2026 programme committee. Jurors who are authors or co-authors of any paper under consideration will recuse themselves.
  • The jury’s selection is final and binding. No nomination, appeal, or correspondence regarding the selection will be entertained.


2B. Category 4 – Beyond CHI auto-qualification

  • Authors who presented at HCIPAI Beyond CHI 2026 are automatically eligible and will be contacted directly by HCIPAI. No entry form or entry fee applies to this pathway.
  • Authors submitting via self-nomination must have published at a peer-reviewed international conference or journal. The jury determines venue relevance.
  • Self-nominees must pay the applicable entry fee. Beyond CHI auto-qualifiers are exempt from all entry fees.


3. AI use disclosure

  • Entries that involved the use of AI tools at any stage of the design, research, or documentation process must disclose this in the submission form.
  • The submitting team remains fully responsible for the originality, accuracy, and ethical integrity of the final submission.

4. Intellectual property

  • Participants retain full ownership of their submitted work.
  • By submitting an entry, participants grant HCIPAI a non-exclusive, royalty-free right to reproduce, display, and publish the submission – or excerpts from it, for promotional and archival purposes, including on the HCIPAI website, social media, and at HCIPAI events.
  • HCIPAI will credit the submitting team whenever the work is published or displayed.
  • Participants are responsible for ensuring they have the rights to submit all content included in their entry, including images, data, and third-party assets.


5. Evaluation and adjudication

  • All eligible entries will be reviewed by a panel of HCI experts appointed by HCIPAI.
  • Jurors are required to declare any conflict of interest and will be excluded from evaluating entries where a conflict exists.
  • A shortlist of up to five finalists per category will be invited to present at IndiaHCI 2026 (where applicable).
  • The decisions of the jury are final and binding. No correspondence will be entered into regarding outcomes.
  • HCIPAI reserves the right to withhold an award in any category if no submission meets the required standard.
  • Special Mention awards may be given at the jury’s discretion where exceptional work warrants recognition beyond the top two prizes.

6. Fees and payments

  • Entry fees are non-refundable except within 48 hours of payment.
  • Only entries with completed payment will proceed to evaluation.
  • Submission deadlines and corresponding entry fee discounts, applicable equally to all six categories:
  • Super Early Bird: submit and pay by 15 June 2026, 35% discount
  • Early Bird: submit and pay by 15 July 2026, 20% discount
  • Standard: submit and pay by 15 September 2026, full price
  • Discounts stack with membership rates – submitting early and as a member maximises savings.
  • Category 3 (Best HCI Paper at IndiaHCI 2026) and Category 4 Beyond CHI auto-qualifiers are exempt from entry fees.
  • To qualify for membership discounts, entries must be registered using the submitter’s institutional or organisational email address.


7. Awards, prizes and recognition

Winners and honourees will be announced at the closing session of IndiaHCI 2026, 29–31 October, IIT Hyderabad.

Winners are granted the right to use the HCIPAI Awards 2026 logo and mark in their own communications, subject to HCIPAI’s brand guidelines.

Cash prizes are awarded in the Best Student Design Project and Best HCI Thesis / Dissertation categories independently, as follows:

First Prize: ₹50,000

Second Prize: ₹25,000

Special Mention (if awarded): ₹10,000

8. Indemnity and liability

  • Participants agree to indemnify and hold harmless HCIPAI, its officers, volunteers, and agents from any claims, damages, or liabilities arising out of their participation in the awards.
  • HCIPAI is not responsible for any loss of or damage to submitted materials.
  • HCIPAI will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising in connection with the awards.

9. Privacy and data protection

  • Personal data collected during the submission process will be used solely for the administration of the HCIPAI Awards 2026.
  • HCIPAI will not share personal data with third parties without the participant’s explicit consent, except as required by law.
  • Winners’ names, institutions, and project titles will be published on the HCIPAI website and shared on HCIPAI’s social media channels.

10. General conditions

  • HCIPAI reserves the right to modify, postpone, or cancel the awards programme at any time, with reasonable notice where possible.
  • These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of India.
  • By submitting an entry, participants confirm that they have read, understood, and agree to these terms and conditions.


Contact

For any queries regarding the HCIPAI Awards 2026, please write to: awards@indiahci.org

Please allow up to 3 working days for a response. For general HCIPAI enquiries, contact general_chair@indiahci.org


Only entries with completed payments will be evaluated.

Pay Your Application Fee

Note: For availing member discounts, please ensure that you register using your institute/ organisation email ID.

For any queries related to the HCIPAI Awards, please feel free to reach out to shalakad@gmail.com.