Travel: NSF Student Travel Grant for the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

This grant will provide partial travel support to about 10 U.S.-based students to attend the Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Pioneers Workshop, to be held in March 2026 conjunction with the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2026). HRI is a selective venue that bridges robotics, human factors, artificial intelligence, behavioral sciences, and related fields to advance knowledge around designing effective interactions with robots. The HRI Pioneers Workshop provides a forum for undergraduate and graduate students to present their work, learn about the current state of HRI, and network with one another and with select senior researchers in a relaxed and interactive setting associated with the conference. Workshop participants will discuss important issues and open challenges in the field, encouraging the formation of collaborative relationships across disciplines and geographic boundaries. Alumni from prior years of the workshop will be invited to participate in a forum with current attendees to further develop these professional relationships. The availability of travel funding will be widely advertised to bring in a large and pool of potential student awardees. Criteria for selection include having the need for funding, the timing in the student's career, the estimated benefit to the attendee and to the workshop as a whole, and the quality and fit of the application to conference topics. In alignment with the workshop's overall goal to bring together a variety of academic and industry researchers, the selection committee will also seek to fund students from a wide range of disciplinary, institutional, and topical backgrounds. Participation in the workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to increase their knowledge of the current state of the field of human-robot interaction and to encourage them to continue their career as HRI researchers in academia, government, or industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.