Call For Early Career Researchers
Key dates
- The call is currently open!
What is the Early Career Mentoring Track?
Are you in the final year of your PhD or have you been a postdoctoral researcher for up to six years?
ACM IMX 2026 aims to give visibility to early career researchers in our community who are working toward developing their independence as researchers.
This part of the program will feature:
- Several (short) invited talks.
- Pitch presentations given by early career researchers (yes, that means you!) – a great opportunity to showcase your research!
- One-to-one mentoring sessions between early career and senior researchers.
The (short) invited talks will be carefully chosen to inspire early career researchers, offering insights into different paths, strategies, and experiences that have worked for others.
The pitch presentations will offer early career researchers an excellent opportunity to introduce themselves to the community, showcase their research, and engage in meaningful discussions.
Finally, the one-to-one sessions will allow early career researchers to connect directly with senior researchers, providing the opportunity to discuss specific research challenges or potential collaborations.
Do you want to participate?
We look forward to seeing you in this session — apply through the application form!
Take part, share your work, and connect with researchers from this amazing community!
Speakers and program
Early Career Mentoring will take place on June 10th according to the following program:
| Time | 10th June |
|---|---|
| 16:30-17:15 | Early Career Mentoring Pitches Anna Ferrarotti — User-Centered Quality of Experience Assessment for Extended Reality Carlos Cortés Sánchez — Researching distorted perception: the effect of latency in immersive interactions Erica Rocchi — Quality of Experience for Hybrid Extended Reality Mahla Alizadeh — Narrative Media as Speculative Prompts in Participatory Design Michaela Pnacekova — Reflective Design Methods with AI Albert Zhang — Beyond Assistance: How LLMs Reshape Thinking, Learning, and Work in Qualitative Research Sebastian Gallardo — Optimizing Newspaper Layouting: An AI/Optimization Approach Yujing Zhang — Exploring VR environmental scene design guidelines for autistic children from a stakeholder perspective Jan Henry Belz — Breaking out of the Ivory Tower with Research through Design Sahir Sharma — Adoption-specific implications of eXtended Reality (XR) for mechanical engineering design reviews in the Irish manufacturing sector Yu Liu — From One-Off Museum Prototypes to Reusable HMD-AR Interaction Design Patterns |
| 17:15-18:00 | Fireside events - Short invited talks |
Early Career Mentoring Chairs
For further details on scope, submission route or any other issues, please get in touch with the early careers mentoring chairs at: mentoring@imx.acm.org.
Pablo Cesar
Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
Marta Orduna
Nokia XR lab