From September 4 to 6, the XXIII edition of the International Congress on Human-Computer Interaction was held. It has been organized by the GRIHO research group of the University of Lleida, with the support of the University of Lleida Foundation. The co-presidents, Toni Granollers and Montse Sendín, together with the rest of the members of GRIHO have achieved a successful congress both from a scientific point of view and from its social aspect, highlighting the visit to the fabulous Seu Vella complex, which overlooks the city of Lleida, and a tour of the historic center of Igualada.

A total of 84 attendees attended the event, this time held on the two campuses of the University of Lleida (Lleida and Igualada), the campus where the Higher Polytechnic School is based, the center where the organizers of the event carry out their academic activity. .

The topics of the sessions covered topics such as usability, user experience, accessibility, health and IPO, serious games, intelligent user interfaces, interactive paradigms, interaction for people with disabilities, as well as totally transversal topics grouped in two sessions called cross-sectional HCI. Particularly noteworthy is the celebration of a session dedicated to interactive art, which reconnects us with the more interdisciplinary spirit of the beginnings of the congress. Along these lines, in addition, two of the works presented were exhibited throughout the entire congress.

A round table was also held to discuss ethics issues and their relationship with the discipline, with the participation of 5 experts and professors in various areas who contributed their experience, as well as some practical cases.

Two invited presentations were made within the framework of the congress. The first by Duncan Brumby, professor at University College London, who attended the conference thanks to the ACM Distinguished Speakers program. Brumby showed some of his research results aimed at understanding and improving the design and use of digital interruptions. And, to conclude, the turn was for Patxi Araujo, artist and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country, who with his talk titled: “Sensor Searches for Meaning: Poetics of Interaction”, made us reflect on the aesthetic dimension. His conference, in which we were able to enjoy some of his works, aimed to build bridges between technical and aesthetic thinking, addressing the explanation of it from artistic practice in programming environments and construction of technical objects.

Other scientific activities that were carried out at the congress were the Doctoral Colloquium, the presentation session of the awarded TFG and TFM, the presentation session of groups and research projects. The practical demonstrations were carried out by the company Tobii, one of the sponsors of the congress, with its integrated eyetracker solutions, together with its collaborator Bitbrain, to present electroencephalogram equipment offering a wide range of solutions for multimodal monitoring. Likewise, the congress hosted the AIPO ordinary assembly, as well as the meeting of its Board of Directors.

As far as contributions are concerned, a total of 60 articles were received, of which 54 were accepted (90% acceptance), distributed as follows: 33 long articles, 11 short articles, 4 projects and 5 articles in the two sessions of the Doctoral Colloquium. Without giving up the in-person characteristic of the congress, and for justified reasons, space has been made for the presentation of 3 remote contributions presented by researchers from Latin America.

At the closing of the congress, the different awards that AIPO grants annually were presented: the Jesús Lorés for the best article of the congress, and the awards for the best Final Degree and Master’s Thesis. On this occasion we had the honor of having direct relatives of Jesús Lorés (Adriana, his wife, and Arnau, one of his children) for the award ceremony, and as a final culmination, the delivery of a txapela, with reason for the recognition of the promoters of the network by our beloved Julio Abascal, as a gift and recognition by AIPO to the figure of Jesus.

Finally, the event ended with the move to Santiago de Compostela, which will be the city that will host the next edition of the congress, this time as part of the CEDI. As in previous editions