Your journey is divided into key milestones, each designed to guide you from an initial concept to a fully developed 6-page research paper ready for IECON 2026 or IRAI 2026.
Milestone 1 (Due: March 15, 2026)
- Abstract (200 words)
Provide a succinct summary of your project’s objectives and significance. - Literature Review
Briefly survey relevant academic papers and prior implementations that relate to your idea. - Methodology Diagram
Show a clear flow or architecture diagram illustrating how your system or approach works. - Dataset/Experiment Plan
Identify the dataset(s) you will use or describe how you plan to collect/generate them.- We encourage using IEEE Dataport or other reputable repositories.
Milestone 2 (Due: April 5, 2026)
- Initial Paper Draft (3–6 pages) including:
- Introduction (explain significance and novelty)
- Methods (key functionalities, technical details)
- Preliminary Results or Observations
- References (cite all used data, papers, libraries)
Milestone 3 (Due: April 20, 2026)
- Final Revision
- Incorporate mentor and reviewer feedback.
- Aim for a 6-page final manuscript, ready for conference submission.
- If you have any demonstration materials (like videos or simulations), include a link or supporting data.
Final Paper Format
- Must adhere to the standard IEEE conference template (two-column format, up to 6 pages) on an overleaf project.
- All text, figures, and references should follow IEEE guidelines.
Note: Failure to meet these milestones may result in disqualification or reduced consideration by the judging panel.
Submission to IECON 2026 and IRAI 2026
All completed papers will be directed for submission to a conference. The appropriate conference will be recommended by the hackathon judging team. Based on this recommendation, authors must submit the paper directly to the relevant conference.
Each manuscript will typically undergo 1–2 months of peer review by the conference before an acceptance decision is made. Based on the accepted papers, the top 3 teams and 3 runners-up (that is, 6 winners per conference and 12 winners across both conferences) will be selected.
All accepted papers will receive financial support from the hackathon. This covers expenses related to paper publication. Author registration fees are not included unless a travel grant is awarded by the hackathon. If your paper is accepted but your team is not among the top 6 teams receiving a travel grant for that conference, you will be responsible for your own travel and registration expenses, while the paper publication process will still be handled by the hackathon.
If you are unable to attend the conference, the hackathon team will present your paper on your behalf.
Manuscript Submission
All submissions must be uploaded through IEEE IES Conferences Community System’s Paper Submission Website following the schedule given in important dates. Each submission will be reviewed by three independent reviewers using a single blind peer review process, and will be screened for plagiarism and duplicate publication. The accepted papers are to be presented in the conference, and will be hosted on IEEE Xplore, subject to formatting and copyright requirements.
IEEE Industrial Electronics Society’s Conferences Community System Registration
Before submitting your paper, you should register to the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society’s Conferences Community System. If you haven’t already done so, please register using the IEEE IES Conferences Community System’s Registration Website.
As part of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation email for you to activate your account.
Authorship & Contributions
Authorship must follow IEEE authorship guidelines. All listed authors should have made a meaningful intellectual contribution to the work, such as problem formulation, methodology design, experimentation, analysis, or manuscript writing. If a mentor’s contribution meets IEEE authorship criteria, they must be included as a co-author. Acknowledgements should be used only for non-author-level support.
Presentation Mode
Accepted papers must be presented at the respective conference. IECON 2026 is a physical-only conference, while IRAI 2026 supports hybrid (online or in-person) presentations.