Call for Papers

Important Dates

• May 4, 2025: Full Papers, Short Papers, and Experience Reports 

• May 12, 2025: Lightning Talks & Workshops 

• August 4, 2025: Notification of Acceptance for Full Papers, Short Papers, Experience Reports, Lightning Talks, & Workshops

• September 5, 2025: Final Versions Due 

Introduction

The BICE Symposium invites submissions from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers committed to exploring equity, inclusion, and justice within computing education, with a specific focus on Black issues. We invite rigorous, critical, and reflective scholarship. BICE 2025 especially encourages work that connects to this year’s theme—“Computing Education in the Age of AI”—examining both the empowering possibilities of AI for expanding educational opportunities and the risks of marginalization through biased systems. We welcome proposals that demonstrate and interrogate how AI can open new frontiers in teaching and learning, offer more personalized educational experiences, and enhance workforce readiness. We encourage you to share your ideas and research, reflecting on how AI-driven innovations—spanning curriculum design, pedagogical strategies, student assessment, mentoring, and career preparation—can shape the future of Black computing education. Submissions may consider the potential of AI to expand educational opportunities, highlight areas where AI tools can improve teaching and learning, and/or explore how educators and institutions can thoughtfully integrate AI in ways that are both responsible and responsive to student needs.

The symposium will be held in Miami, Florida, and will not offer any online or hybrid participation. We invite submissions on topics including but not limited to: issues and opportunities at HBCU/PBI computing departments; recruitment of Black students into undergraduate and graduate computing programs; retention strategies for Black computing students, and much more. The BICE Symposium provides many ways to share ideas, including papers, workshops, lightning talks, and keynote presentations. We invite colleagues to contribute to, review for, and attend BICE Symposium 2025. Once papers are accepted and finalized for publication, the official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. At least one author of an accepted work must register for and attend the conference.

Paper submissions should describe an educational research project, computing education experience or pedagogical tool, novel position, or curricular initiative. All papers should explicitly state their motivating questions, relate to relevant literature, and analyze the effectiveness of interventions (if any), including limitations. Initial submissions must be anonymous and must be on the appropriate track.

RESEARCH PAPERS

Papers should adhere to rigorous standards, describing their applicable theoretical/analytical lenses, research questions, contexts, methods, results, and limitations. These normally focus on topics relevant to computing education with an emphasis on educational goals and knowledge units/topics; methods or techniques; evaluation of pedagogical approaches; studies of Blacks engaged in computing education, including (but not limited to) students and instructors; and issues of gender, diversity, and underrepresentation.

Submissions should include the following sections, in the order listed:

● Title

● Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full names, institution, and email addresses (should be anonymized for initial submission)

● Abstract: 75-150 words that briefly state the purpose/issue(s) being addressed, methods/process, and key takeaways. It should provide a connection to the conference theme.

● Keywords

● Introduction

● Theoretical framework

● Research Goals/Questions/Hypotheses (aligned to Theoretical Framework)

● Research design/methods

● Data collection/analysis

● Results/Findings

● Discussion

● For completed works: Conclusions, limitations, recommendations for future research, and implications for practice should be discussed.

● For works in progress: Limitations, future directions, and implications for practice should be discussed.

● References

● Acknowledgment: If the submission contains acknowledgments, they should be placed immediately after the conclusion but before the list of references. This should be anonymized until acceptance.

EXPERIENCE REPORTS

Papers should carefully describe a computing education intervention and its context, and provide a rich reflection on what did or didn’t work, and why. This track accepts experience reports, teaching techniques, and pedagogical tools. All papers in this track should provide enough detail for adoption by others.

Submissions should include the following sections, in the order listed:

● Title

● Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full names, institution, and email addresses (should be anonymized for initial submission)

● Abstract: 75-150 words that briefly state the purpose/issue(s) being addressed, methods/process, and key takeaways. It should provide a connection to the conference theme.

● Keywords

● Introduction

● Description of Practice: Including context, audience, goals, and outcomes

● Limitations and assumptions

● Implications and next steps

● For completed works: Implications, next steps, recommendations for research and practice should be discussed.

● For works in progress: Future directions, professional development needs, and implications for research and practice should be discussed.

● References

● Acknowledgment: If the submission contains acknowledgments, they should be placed immediately after the conclusion but before the list of references. This should be anonymized until acceptance.

PAGE LENGTH REQUIREMENTS

Submissions for Experience Reports and Short Papers must not exceed 4 pages in length, excluding references.

Full papers must not exceed 6 pages in length, excluding references.

REVIEW PROCESS

All paper submissions undergo an identity-hidden peer-review process. Please fully anonymize your submission(s). All submissions are evaluated based on authentic inclusion of the above criteria, rigor, as well as alignment with the conference’s theme.

WORKSHOPS 

(2 pages max; 3 hours) Workshops engage participants in learning new techniques and technologies designed to foster education, scholarship, and collaboration. Proposals must include an abstract, advertisement, intended audience, and size, as well as power, A/V, equipment, and space needs. Workshops do not have schedule conflicts with the technical sessions. Only a 250-word abstract will be included in the proceedings.

LIGHTNING TALKS 

(1 page max; 5 - 7 minutes) Lightning talks describe works in progress, new and untested ideas, or opportunities for collaborative work; an excellent way to spark discussions and get feedback on an idea.