The CHI’25 sustainability committee received many strong submissions for the Special Recognition for Sustainable Practice, and we are excited to announce the winners. As with last year, we recognized projects based on two tracks: (i) Research with Potential for Sustainable Impact and (ii) Research Teams with Inspirational Research Practices. For each category, a winner and runner-up were selected. Without further ado:
For Research with Potential for Sustainable Impact:
- [Winner] How CO2STLY Is CHI? The Carbon Footprint of Generative AI in HCI Research and What We Should Do About It. Nanna Inie (IT University of Copenhagen), Jeanette Falk (Aalborg University), and Raghavendra Selvan (University of Copenhagen). Discusses the carbon footprint of generative AI in HCI research, calls for attention to how the recent GenAI trend in HCI research would impact the environment, and proposes best practices.
- [Runner-up] Sustainability, Development, and Human-Computer Interaction. Vishal Sharma (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Neha Kumar (Georgia Tech). This work embraces sustainability not only in its focus but also in its execution. From a broad vision, they uncover understandings, critiques, tensions, and considerations toward advancing scholarship at the intersections of sustainability, development, and HCI.
For Research Teams with Inspirational Research Practices:
- [Winner] Unlocking the Power of Speech: Game-Based Accent and Oral Communication Training for Immigrant English Language Learners via Large Language Models. Yijun Zhao (Zhejiang University), Jiangyu Pan (Zhejiang University), Jiacheng Cao (Zhejiang University), Jiarong Zhang (Zhejiang University), Yan Dong (Zhejiang University), Yicheng Wang (Zhejiang University), Preben Hansen (Stockholm University), and Guanyun Wang (Zhejiang University). To ensure broad accessibility on a range of hardware, this work uses Minecraft to build a “serious game” to help people learn English and discusses sustainable design choices in the execution of this work.
- [Runner-up] Layered Interactions: Exploring Non-Intrusive Digital Craftsmanship Design Through Lacquer Art Interfaces. Yan Dong (Tsinghua University), Hanjie Yu (Tsinghua University), Yanran Chen (Tsinghua University), Zipeng Zhang (Tsinghua University, and Wu Qiong (Tsinghua University. Infusing interactivity into traditional crafting, this work embodies making the old new again, demonstrates the power of interaction design, and provides a holistic perspective.
Congratulations to our winners and runner-up, and thank you to everyone who shared their work with us. If you wish to learn more about these projects, please look for them at CHI’25; the projects receiving these recognitions have also been indicated in the program.
