Who are Student Volunteers (SVs)?
Student volunteers (SVs) are an essential part of CHI. They play a major role in helping the conference run smoothly, especially during the conference itself. SVs take on a wide variety of tasks: handing out and checking badges, monitoring paper sessions, guiding attendees to keynotes, restaurants, restrooms, or even to their lost water bottles. They also help set up exciting demos, for example, by setting up nets for drones or building sculptures out of coke bottles! And when unexpected challenges arise, such as locating a missing presenter (they might be having a siesta), or why the microphone isn’t working anymore, SVs are there to help. Along with many others, student volunteers contribute an incredible amount of effort to ensure CHI is a seamless, welcoming, and memorable experience for everyone.
Beyond these roles, SVs are oftentimes also HCI researchers. Many have already published their research at CHI and other conferences, and are active members of the research community. For others, CHI is a whole new experience, an opportunity to see how research is shared and how the community connects. In both cases, being an SV is an incredible opportunity to connect with possible mentors, collaborators, and peers.
And here’s the important bit: SVs are students! We are not trained event managers or AV technicians. We are volunteers and conference attendees. Each SV agrees to an informal contract: in exchange for about 20 hours of their time (though many happily put in more), the conference waives their registration fees and provides daily lunch and breakfast. Tasks can begin as early as 6:30 a.m., sometimes run through lunch, and may wrap up as late as 8 pm. Please note that SVs are still responsible for their own housing and transportation.
The SV program brings together a diverse group of students, including a mix of both returning and new volunteers. Within their agreed hours, SVs take on a wide range of tasks; some simple and others more complex that benefit from prior experience. For this reason, the SV pool includes both; returning SVs show incoming SVs how tasks work, and new students come up with new ideas on how to improve them.
How Do I Become an SV?
You must have had student status for at least one semester during the academic year before CHI to qualify for the program. This means you need to have student status at some point between April 2025 and April 2026, when CHI 2026 takes place. We are more than happy to accept undergrad, graduate, and Ph.D. students. We need friendly, enthusiastic and collaborative volunteers to help us out.
The SV lottery is open on October 15th, 2025 via the CHISV system (new.chisv.org). We expect to have about 180 spots in total. All other students who enrolled will be assigned a position on the waiting list.
To be considered for any pathway to become an SV, you must first enroll in the CHISV system, select CHI 2026, and complete the enrollment steps.
After enrolling, there are four different, non-mutually exclusive pathways to become an SV:
- Lottery: By enrolling in CHISV for CHI 2026, you are automatically entered into the lottery. No further action is required.
- Recommendation: You can be recommended by members of the Program or Organizing Committees. It is important to note that this does not guarantee your acceptance, but it does increase your chances.
- Institutional Knowledge: You can be selected as an institutional knowledge SV
- T-Shirt Competition: You can win an SV position through the T-shirt design competition.
Please see the details for each pathway below. In all cases (including recommended SVs), the student must be enrolled with CHI 2026 in new.chisv.org to be considered for a spot. There is no way to avoid enrollment via the CHISV system.
Important Dates
All times are in the Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.
- SV lottery enrollment opens: October 15th, 2025
- Close lottery: Friday, January 23rd, 2026
- Announce results: Monday, January 26th, 2026
Because many institutional email systems block lottery notifications sent from the CHISV system, you are responsible for marking the announcement date on your calendar, checking the CHISV system yourself, and officially accepting your student volunteer position by the deadline (within two weeks after the announcement). If you do not accept your position before the deadline, it will be offered to the next person on the waitlist.
What Will I Do When I Volunteer?
For CHI 2026 SVs, you will agree to a volunteer contract, in which you agree to:
- Work at least 20 hours
- Show up on time for tasks
- Attend an orientation session on April 12, 2026 (Sunday)
- Arrive at the venue one day before the conference (to attend an SV orientation)
In return, we commit to:
- Waive your registration fee (conference only)
- Provide 2 meals a day on-site (breakfast and lunch)
- Free SV t-shirt to be collected on site
- Our fabulous SV thank-you party. There is always food, drinks, dancing, and fun!
- More SV benefits TBA…
If you need to reach us, please always use the sv@chi2026.acm.org address. Reply-to-all on our correspondence so we all stay in the loop and can better help you.
Recommended SVs
Each member of the program committee (e.g., SCs or ACs) and members of the organizing committee get to recommend one student. This pool of SVs accounts for 20% of the total slots for SVs. We will send the recommendation form to all ACs and OCs on December 8th, 2025. The form will remain open until January 9th, 2026, prior to the PC meeting. It is important to note that recommended students are not guaranteed acceptance; otherwise, all the spots would be filled by recommended students.
From this selection pool, we pick about 30% to 40% based on the information provided by nominators. We look for strong recommendations on the person’s ability to perform SV-related tasks, we look for opportunities to increase the diversity of the SV group, and we look for people who would benefit the most from being an SV for the current year. The rest of the slots are assigned through a random lottery within the recommended SVs pool. Students not selected at this stage will have another chance in the general lottery pool later.
While being recommended does not guarantee an SV slot, it grants you closer consideration and an extra roll of a dice in the SV lottery.
Institutional Knowledge SVs
Institutional knowledge SVs are students who have been SVs at CHI before, are experienced with a variety of tasks, and can help train the incoming class of SVs. These SVs account for 20% of the total SV slots. All of these students were exceptional SVs in previous years (e.g., always on time AND very proactive AND helpful to others on/off duty, AND went above the requirements for their current task). Many of them are trained in specialized tasks. Unfortunately, due to the high competition for an SV slot, we can’t always accept all students who fit this description. We prioritize selecting a few exceptional SVs in specialized roles, and these slots are assigned at the SV Chairs’ discretion, based on continued notes on SVs from previous CHI conferences.
General Pool SVs
The remaining 60% of the slots go through the current lottery system built into new.chisv.org. The CHISV system uses a random lottery to generate a waitlist. Based on past experience, people at the top of the waitlist still have a good chance of being accepted, as some people selected through the lottery may decline their spot for various reasons. We will notify people on the waitlist on a rolling basis. Please do not email to inquire about your status, as it will not affect the order in which we send out acceptance notifications.
T-shirt Design Competition SV
The last way you could get an SV slot is by winning the t-shirt design competition. For more details on design specifications, please check this blog post about the SV T-shirt Design Competition. The deadline for T-shirt design submissions is January 16, 2026 (AoE). The winner gets an SV spot.
And Who are the SV Chairs?
SV chairs are senior SVs who have seen the process through multiple years of serving as SVs. For two of them, the SV chair position is a two-year commitment. This is because the CHI SV program is a beast. With about 200 SVs each year, coordination with many conference chairs and multiple stakeholders with different needs, and serving as an SV chair for CHI requires SV experience and training in the role. In the first year, the junior SV chair observes, learns, and helps with organizational tasks. They learn how to operate the CHISV system, how to address different types of requests, and how to manage an operation the size of a small startup.
Future SV chairs are selected based on their experience as SVs, their graduation timeline, and the specific needs of the conference that year. The current SV chairs consider several candidates and make a recommendation to the General Chairs of someone they are confident will do a good job in organizing the SV program for the coming years. Sometimes, when there are special needs, the General Chairs of future CHIs are brought in earlier in this decision process to ensure that the “rollover” SV Chair will be able to attend to those needs (e.g., in locations where English is not as widely spoken or where cultural norms are significantly different).
As SV chairs, we invest more than 200 pre-conference hours planning SV tasks and ensuring the conference is adequately supported by the SV program. During the conference, we spend the majority of our time at the conference managing and addressing incoming requests. If you would like to be a future SV chair, make sure you are an SV at CHI (and other conferences as well), have higher responsibilities and tasks (volunteer for them!), and let us know that you are interested. Every year, we go through the process of picking a new junior chair, and that person can be you!
If you need to communicate with us, please always use the sv@chi2026.acm.org address so that all of us receive it. Reply to all on our correspondence so all of us stay in the loop, and we can help you better.
Frequently Asked Questions
We get a lot of emails with the same kinds of questions; this is not a made-up FAQ.
Q: I know the deadline for the lottery has passed, but I really want to be an SV. Is it still possible to join?
A: You can still go to new.chisv.org at any time after the lottery opens, even after it runs, to add your name to the list. If the lottery has already been held, your name will be added to the end of the waiting list. If you’ll be attending CHI anyway, there’s always a chance you could be added at the last minute, so it’s worth signing up!
Q: I want to skip orientation, work fewer than 20 hours, or arrive late. Can I still be an SV?
A: Sorry, these are the minimum requirements for all SVs. If you commit and something truly unexpected comes up (e.g., volcanic eruptions, being chased by a bull, or other emergencies), just let us know as soon as possible. We appreciate you keeping us in the loop.
Q: I missed your emails and/or forgot to register by the deadlines, so I lost my SV spot. Can I get it back?
A: If the issue was not reading emails, missing deadlines, not updating your contact info, or similar reasons, unfortunately, we can’t hold your spot. However, if you have extenuating circumstances, please reach out to us right away so we can see if anything can be done.
Q: I was recommended for an SV spot by someone and got in. Do I have to do the same work as other SVs?
A: Yes, all SVs have the same responsibilities and expectations, regardless of how they were selected.
We are looking forward to meeting all of you!
Tzu-Sheng Kuo, Annie Chu, Yuki Onishi, Esen K. Tütüncü
CHI 2026 Student Volunteer Chairs
sv@chi2026.acm.org