Academic Program
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Academic Mindtrek 2026
When
Tuesday 27th – Friday 30th of
October, 2026 (GMT+3)
Where
Paidia Living Lab of Play (Nokia Arena) | ONLINE
Academic Mindtrek 2026 Program
We are very pleased to announce that the 29th International Academic Mindtrek conference will take place between the 27th and 30th of October 2026.
Click on the different conference day tabs to view more detailed program and schedules for each day.
10:00 – 17:00 DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM
10:00 – 17:00 WORKSHOPS*
*Individual workshops follow their own schedules. They are TBA on the Academic Mindtrek website.
Workshops (in alphabetical order):
- Alternative Research Outcomes and Presentation Formats
organized by Sophia Ppali and Min Yoo - Designing Multi-Reality Futures: Speculative Explorations of Seamless and Meaningful XR Experiences
organized by Tippayaporn Pavavimol, Xinyan ‘Shelly’ Zhao, Cansu Çetin Er, Noak Petersson, Aleksandr Ometov, Mikko Valkama, and Mattia Thibault - Human-Centered Perspectives on the Role of AI in Accessibility
organized by Markku Häkkinen, Jason White, Helen Sullivan and Shriran Saharasbudhe - The Importance of Memes/Academic Shirttalking
organized by Matilda Kalving
9:00 > REGISTRATION OPENS
10:00 – 10:20 INTRODUCTION
10:20 – 11:20 ACADEMIC KEYNOTE
Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Kay Kunze, TU Clausthal (Germany)
Title:
Augmenting Humans in the Age of AI – From Physiology to Shared Experiences
11:20 – 11:35 BREAK
11:35 – 12:00 PAPER TRACK: HUMAN-NATURE INTERACTION
Chairs:
Damla Cay (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design)
Samuel Chovanec (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design)
Piumi Perera (University of Melbourne)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Extending Living Labs from a More-than-Human Perspective in Design: A Reflective Practice Interview Study with the I.N.S.E.C.T. Collective (by Katerina Cerna, Abdullah Tarik Celik and Patricia Csobánczi)
12:00 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK
13:30 – 14:10 POSTERS AND DEMO SESSION (FIRST SESSION)
Posters (in alphabetical order):
- Blow It! – Evaluating a Directional Exhalation Interface for Object Selection (by Venla Kamppari, Antti Sand, Karri Palovuori, Roope Raisamo, Ismo Rakkolainen and Marko Björkbacka)
- Could Robot Pets Support Well-Being at School? Insights from High School Students” (by Marketta Heikkilä, Salla Jarske and Aino Ahtinen)
- Designing a capital-based employability game to support reflection on education-to-work transitions” (by Galina Zvereva, Yuilia Shumilova, Dung Nguyen, Bernardo Quirola Penaherrera, Yuzhuo Cai, Emma Pretty, Georgina Guillen and Daniel Fernández Galeote)
- Does Learnability Trump Familiarity? Locomotion Mechanics and Embodiment in Non-Human Avatars” (by Salik Tariq and Laura Cosio)
- ”Digital Inclusion in Crisis: Embodied Testimony, Civilian Rescue Narratives, and Digital Interaction in Gaza (2023–2025)” (by Hanan Shurrab)
- Everyday AI Needs Validation: A Facet-Based Model, with AI Simulated Patients as a Case Study (by Ian Hakkinen, Helen Sullivan, Natalia Murinova and Markku Häkkinen)
- Gamified Sustainable Consumption Apps as Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Ecologies for Critical Digital Literacy (by Georgina Guillen and Juho Hamari)
- Recall-Grounded Scenarios: An Approach for Studying Longitudinal User Experiences in Short Sessions (by Md Aseer Intiser, Thomas Olsson and Amir Pakpour Haji Agha)
- The Cards We’ve Been Dealt: Designing Obstruction Cards for Creating Design Fictions (by Negin Hashmati and Thommy Eriksson)
- When Heat Becomes a Healthcare Challenge: Climate Resilience Workshops for Medical and Dental Specialists (by Mirkka Forssell)
Demos (in alphabetical order):
- TBD
14:10 – 15:05 PAPER TRACK: THE FUTURE OF SMART CITIES
Chairs:
Lieven Ameel (University of Helsinki)
Cansu Çetin Er (Tampere University)
Mattia Thibault (Tampere University)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Cityverse Readiness: A Critical-Infrastructure Reading of the Smart City Promise (by Janset Shawash)
- Netwalking: Community-Based Computer Vision (by David Hunter, James Branch, Daniel Leithinger and Ellen Yi-Luen Do)
- Smart Sampa and the Moral Mediation of Urban Surveillance: Socio-Technical Tensions in a Smart City Initiative (by Ligia Anjos, Merja Bauters and Pauliina Baltzar)
15:05 – 15:15 BREAK
15:15 – 15:55 PAPER TRACK: GAMES AND GAMIFICATION (PART 1)
Chairs:
Juho Hamari (Tampere University)
Benedikt Morschheuser (University of Bamberg)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Become the Beast: Exploring Human-Quadruped Locomotion for Exergames (by Shamit Ahmed, Prabhav Bhatnagar and Perttu Hämäläinen)
- Exploring the Potential of Participatory Game Design for Young People’s Computational Empowerment – Facilitating young people’s participation in game design (by Ruut Tikkanen, Netta Iivari and Juho Mattila)
15:55 – 16:05 BREAK
16:05 – 16:50 PAPER TRACK: GAMES AND GAMIFICATION (PART 2)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Multimodal Cues for Immersion in Virtual Reality: A Comparative User Study (by Tommi Kiianmies, Petra Nurmela, Ashley Colley, Zhengya Gong and Jonna Häkkilä)
- Validation of the Finnish Game Transfer Phenomena Scale: Associations with Gameplay Behaviors and Mind Wandering (by Angelica Ortiz de Gortari, Erno Vanhala, Pihla Rautanen and Muhterem Dindar)
- When Constraints Shape Development: Building Gamified Systems in University–Industry Settings (Juho Mattila and Pasi Karppinen)
16:50 > SOCIALISING & NETWORKING
10:00 – 10:10 GOOD MORNING
10:10 – 10:50 PAPER TRACK: FICTIONAL, SPECULATIVE AND CRITICAL FUTURES (PART 1)
Chairs:
Oğuz ‘Oz’ Buruk (Tampere University)
Shaimaa Lazem (SRTA-City)
Ahmet Börütecene (Malmö University)
Paul Coultron (Lancaster University)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Exploring the Media Multiverse in 2084 (by Cansu Çetin Er, Riku Haapaniemi, Mattia Thibault, Amber
Maimon, Amirhosein Asghari Tavana, Asif Shaikh, Aygün Varol, Batu Aytemiz, Benedikt Morschheuser, Bruno Surace, Çağlar Genç, Danica Maier, Daniel Fernández Galeote, Daniil Doyno, Digdem Sezen, Donald Degraen, Eve Weston, Iddo Yehoshua Wald, Isaac Naor, Jaana Mäkinen, Johanna Virkki, Jonathan Stief, Juho Hamari, Mark Kaunisto, Mila Bujić, Nancy Seidler, Nima Sharafi Rohani, Oğuz’Oz’ Buruk, Pelin Aytemiz Karslı, Runjie Xie, Sandra Birnstiel, Tanja Vihriälä, Tonguç Sezen and Xinyi Tu) - The Book of the Future: Applying Interaction Styles Thinking to Learn from an Artifact’s Past (by Andrés Lucero and Jacob Buur)
10:50 – 11:05 BREAK
11:05 – 11:50 PAPER TRACK: FICTIONAL, SPECULATIVE AND CRITICAL FUTURES (PART 2)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- When Privacy Cannot Be Seen: Speculating Equitable Privacy Awareness for Visually Impaired People (by Fatereh Tondro, Marzia Alizada and Asreen Rostami)
- Talk to You Tomorrow: Design Fiction Vignettes of Everyday Life with Virtual Companions (by Negin Hashmati)
- Zizizi and Me – A speculative appropriation of a digital mail box (by Seçil Uğur Yavuz)
11:50 – 13:20 LUNCH BREAK
13:20 – 14:30 PAPER TRACK: ROBOTS AND AI IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND DATA FOR GOOD
Chairs:
Biju Thankachan (Tampere University)
Yixiao Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Priyanka Sebastian (University of Oulu)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Align, then assign: Comparing Active vs. Passive Conversational Assistants on Clinician Workload and Agency During Care Quality Analysis” (Hamzah Ziadeh, Lina Palaiodimou, Georgios Tsivgoulis, Izabel Antova, Dimitar Taskov, Terry Quinn, Robert Mikulik and Hendrik Knoche)
- Explainability as User-Centered Socio-Technical Sensemaking in High-Stakes AI Systems: A Three-Stage Framework Based on Non-Technical Professionals’ Practices (by Shuren Yu, Sihan Wang and Jiayan Liu)
- It’s Not a Real Person That Actually Cares About You””: Young People’s Perceptions and Use of Virtual Companions (by Negin Hashmati, Therése Skoog, Mohammad Obaid and Thommy Eriksson)
- Where Does the Credit Go, and Who Carries the Cost? Attribution and Integration Labour in AI-Assisted Group Work” (by Moses Nderemani, Jussi Okkonen and Markku Turunen)
14:30 – 14:45 BREAK
14:45 – 16:20 INDUSTRY PANEL
Moderator:
Hanna Heinonen
Title:
The Human Measure: Innovation succeeds when it makes sense to people
Panelists:
TBA
16:20 > SOCIALISING & NETWORKING
19:00 – 21:00 DINNER*
*For presenting authors, doctoral consortium participants, track and organizing chairs, visitor passes with dinner.
10:00 – 10:10 GOOD MORNING
10:10 – 14:10 POSTERS AND DEMO SESSION (SECOND SESSION)
See above (Web. 28, from 13:30 – 14:10)
10:50 – 11:30 PAPER TRACK: METAVERSE
Chairs:
Marc Riar (IÉSEG School of Management)
Nannan Xi (Tampere University)
Zhongyun Zhou (Tongji University)
Papers (in alphabetical order):
- Fire & Ice: Eye-Tracking Indicators of Task Demand in Controlled and Immersive VR (by Ashley Colley, Henri Mella, Jari Kangas, Roope Raisamo and Jonna Häkkilä)
- “From Strategic Opportunity to Uncertainty” -Digital Competence and Metaverse Readiness in a Regional Business Ecosystem (Ruut Tikkanen, Fariha Tabassum, Hannele Lampela, Juho Mattila, Ekaterina Gilman and Netta Iivari)
11:30 – 11:40 BREAK
11:40 – 12:05 PAPER TRACK: ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION IN THE DIGITAL SOCIETY
Chairs (in alphabetical order):
Pauliina Baltzar (Tampere University)
Markku Hakkinen (ETS, Princeton)
Vasiliki Mylonopoulou (University of Gothenburg)
Markku Turunen (Tampere University)
Papers and Pictorials (in alphabetical order):
- Rethinking Accessibility in AI-Powered Public-Service Chatbots (Ahmad Ronaghikhameneh, Mirkka Forssell and Markku Turunen)
12:05 – 13:35 LUNCH BREAK
13:55 – 14:35 ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS
Details TBA
14:35 – 14:50 BREAK
14:50 – 15:40 TOWNHALL MEETING: FUTURE(S) OF MINDTREK
15:40 – 16:25 CLOSING WORDS & AWARDS