This grant will partially support travel and attendance for eight eligible students enrolled at US universities to participate in the 2027 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC 2027), to be held July12-15, 2027, at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts. WHC is the primary biennial international research meeting for haptics, bringing together researchers and practitioners studying touch, tactile and force feedback, human perception, wearable and robotic interfaces, multisensory interaction, and human centered computing. The award process will prioritize applicants for whom the grant is likely to be decisive in enabling attendance, including students without sufficient advisor or institutional support, students attending WHC for the first time, students participating in SIC or workshops/tutorials, student authors/presenters, student volunteers, and students enrolled in U.S. universities representing a range of institutions, degree stages, and research areas. The broader impact of the proposed activity is to reduce financial barriers to participation in a high-quality international research conference and to strengthen the next generation of students in haptics and human centered computing who meet NSF and Program Officer eligibility requirements.
The award process will be need-based and open to all eligible students, with additional consideration for first-time WHC attendance and expected benefit from active conference participation. Reviewers may consider breadth across institutions, degree stages, and research areas as a portfolio-level factor after individual eligibility, need, and expected benefit have been assessed. Funded students will be required to participate actively in WHC 2027 through workshops/tutorials, SIC events, demonstrations, technical sessions, volunteering, or post-conference reporting. Their participation will help build professional networks and career development in haptics-related fields central to robotics, accessibility, healthcare technology, virtual environments, tactile displays, and human-machine interaction.
This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.