Call for the Diversity and Inclusion Competition

CALL FOR THE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMPETITION

The Diversity and Inclusion Competition at ECAI 2025 invites doctoral students to collaboratively design and develop interactive visual artefacts, analytical tools, games, or simulations that explore and reflect upon issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (EDI) within AI research and the ECAI community. This hands-on competition will run throughout the ECAI conference and aims to encourage creative, data-driven, and thought-provoking engagement with EDI themes such as equity in AI research, diversity, inclusiveness, and bias in AI. Participants are invited to go beyond conventional visualisations (e.g., word clouds typically used to illustrate the diversity of ECAI topics) and instead produce original artefacts that stimulate reflection on how our community has evolved and how AI research contributes to advancing diversity and inclusion. Participants may draw inspiration from ECAI’s 50-year history, analysing trends in research topics, representation, or collaboration, and may use openly accessible data sources such as past ECAI proceedings, archives, or other relevant datasets.

PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES

Participation is open only to PhD students attending the ECAI 2025 Doctoral Consortium (DC).
Submissions must be made by teams of three to four students, with members representing at least two different countries. To encourage feasible collaboration, groups with two members or fewer, or those with more than four members, will not be considered.
Teams may be formed informally during the DC by discussing ideas with fellow participants. No dedicated matchmaking session will be organised. Once a team and concept are defined, a pre-submission (tentative title, abstract, and team structure) must be submitted by the stated deadline. This pre-submission step is mandatory. Teams will then continue developing their artefacts independently during ECAI, using available free time, and submit the final paper and artefact access link by the final deadline. Given the short timeline, deadline extensions will not be possible.
At least one team member is expected to remain present until the end of ECAI to receive the award; alternatively, a representative may be nominated to do so.

ARTEFACT AND SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Each team must submit a two-page short paper in PDF format (LNCS template) describing the artefact and providing a link for online access. For LNCS template, see: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs.

The artefact must be developed during the conference days and made available via a public repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab). Make sure to include the URL that leads to the artefact within your PDF submission. Artefacts should be accessible through a web browser or require minimal installation effort.

Submission portal: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=edicecai2025.

IMPORTANT DATES

26 October 2025, 18:00 (Bologna time): Pre-submission deadline (team structure, tentative title, and abstract). The team composition must remain fixed after this date.
28 October 2025, 18:00 (Bologna time): Final submission deadline (short paper including the artefact access link).

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Relevance to EDI Themes: Meaningful engagement with diversity, equity, and inclusion in AI or within the ECAI community.
Creativity and Originality: Novel and innovative ideas extending beyond conventional approaches.
Technical and Analytical Quality: Methodological soundness and appropriate analytical or technical implementation.
Impact and Communication: Effectiveness in conveying its message and potential to inspire reflection or discussion.

AWARDS

The organising team will evaluate the artefacts, and the best artefact will be recognised. Each team member of the winning team will receive a €100 award.

ORGANISATION

The ECAI 2025 Diversity and Inclusion Competition is organised by the ECAI 2025 Diversity and Inclusion Chairs Shihan Wang (Utrecht University) and Vahid Yazdanpanah (University of Southampton).

For all enquiries, please contact: edicecai2025@easychair.org.