Call for Abstracts: Prototypes for Humanity - Submission Deadline 22 May 2026

Dear Colleagues, 

I am pleased to invite the submission of abstracts to the Prototypes for Humanity 2026 Short Papers Platform. 

Abstract Submission Deadline: 22nd May 2026
Invitations to Successful Authors: 8th July 2026
Conference Dates: 15th - 19th November, Dubai, UAE 

** Description **

The Short Papers Platform provides a forum for professors to share their research and engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, fostering global collaboration and knowledge exchange, with a focus on driving real-world impact through academic research.

For 2026, Prototypes for Humanity is delighted to announce the launch of a strategic partnership with the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), for the Short Papers Platform. This joint effort reinforces the programme’s commitment to advancing impactful innovation through collaboration between academia and industry, focusing on the key sectors and themes that reflect international research priorities and that are relevant to the city and to the fund. 

Themes 

• Wellbeing and Human Performance
• Infrastructures and Cities
• Autonomous Systems and Advanced Manufacturing
• Environment, Sustainability and Energy
• Mobility and Logistics
• Socio-Economic Empowerment, Digital Economies and Future Markets
• Open and Speculative

Awards

As part of the programme’s ongoing commitment to research translation, ICD will award a $50,000 prize to one of the short papers presented at the conference. The award recognises academic work with strong potential for practical application, identified through engagement with ICD industry experts, and will support the winning project’s next stage of development towards implementation.

Submissions

Full details can be found at: https://www.prototypesforhumanity.com/press-releases/stories/Call_For_Abstracts_2026

Apply here: https://form.jotform.com/260705028532451?source=https://www.jisc.ac.uk

Deadline for abstract submission: 22 May, 2026

We strongly encourage you to apply where your interests and research aligns with the programme’s thematic areas.

If you have any questions, please contact us at professors AT prototypesforhumanity.com

Sarah Ward
University Relations Manager
Prototypes for Humanity

E: sarah.ward AT prototypesforhumanity.com

My source: Email - https://www.bcs-sgai.org/

The naïve approach

Categories, Bundles and
Spacetime Topology  

'First steps' are by their nature plagued by uncertainty of intent and direction, ungainliness, missteps, stumbles and ('finally') possibly falls.

Finding a starting point can be difficult.

Where to find a hand-hold, place one's foot, or other anchor?

At Lancaster University library I came across this book, first published in 1980. The cover displayed is from the 1988 edition.

In order of appeal I read:

applications, categories, spacetime and topology.

Section I starts with Preliminaries: Notation and Abbreviations; always useful (reminder).

The next, Section II Naïve Category Theory, had my immediate attention. We often speak of learners as being naïve. As lifelong learners we all meet this descriptor. I keep revisiting this word, concept - 'naïve'.

Naivety is a starting point for practitioners in health and social care too. Hence the need for supervision, mentors, the tokens of probationary (driver) and 'newly qualified'. 

Many posts on W2tQ stress the diagrammatic quality of Hodges' model. It is visibly a 2x2 matrix, (once again..) beloved of management consultants, psychologists and change agents. In Section II Dodson recognizes the London Underground map as a graph. A small example is developed, explained and illustrated on p.6. 

Graph example, drawing on the London Underground. p.6.

Section II may be a small part of the overall book but it is invaluable to me. As the photo above suggests, the book is old, especially as 1st edition. I will try to access the 2nd edition. If this work is a project with which you can (more ably!) assist, I would greatly appreciate your input. The aim is to signpost Hodges' model as a potential focus for all researchers. Especially researchers interested in trying to conjoin the sciences and humanities and develop visualization in the latter. 

C.T.J. Dodson. Categories, Bundles and Spacetime Topology. 1st Edition, Shiva, Kent. 1980.

Previously: 'math'

'Diagram' resources listed on former, now archived website.

'Design Thinking' in and out of four boxes...

In 2019 Charles Orton-Jones gave a brief (single page) account of design thinking in sales, with a description of its five components:

Empathise

Define the problem

Ideate

Prototype

Testing

Below, I've mapped each to Hodges' model (and in parallel):

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

HUMANISTIC----------------------------------------------- MECHANISTIC

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

  GROUP

Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype	Define the Problem Prototype Testing
Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype Testing	Empathise Ideate Define the Problem Prototype Testing

 

There is often conceptual overlap and relationships when considering the most mundane, taken-for-granted of phenomena and events. This overlap increases rapidly with more complicated situations. This applies in the case of 'design thinking'. Ideate I take as a mental activity, but it is the flow and interplay of ideas: communication that counts. Empathy is imbued individually, but it is delivered and is realised in the social domain - as empathise suggests. Hopefully, from empathy with group rapport, trust, dignity and respect coherence will follow.

Politically, funding, team constraints, leadership may all influence defining the problem, prototyping and testing. Ideation is 'political' too. We forget this at our peril. Are we sure the protected characteristics have been factored in? You might also test the prototype against the original idea(s): thereby bringing in values. While this application is commercial sales, you are in personalised and specialised 'sales' in healthcare. 

While the above looks like duplication, the parallel approach can help assure the design thinking process as a whole. There is an open question here, but I'm sure despite the duplication and 'travel' to-and-fro within the model the structure helps instill some discipline with efficiency - economy of effort? The model acts as a marshalling (classification) yard.

As an example, this was brought home today on twitter, with a question about dealing with people who have a fear of needles. This may be children, a percentage of the general population and people with a learning disability. We see then how this overlap can be important. By default then working with the above design thinking + h2cm approach to achieve (variously) individualised, integrated, collaborative care then you might also be doing co-design and co-creation. Now that is sales ...!

My source: Orton-Jones, C. Design thinking is making an impact, Raconteur, 20.6.19. p.18.

 

Radiating mechismo...

soul - self - person - individual - person - body - systems - organs - tissues - cells - atp ...

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

dyad ... family - group - community - population - Gaia::Earth - Cosmos

	Blush

 

"Blush is a radiator by Icelandic designer Thorunn Arnadottir that is covered in thermochromatic paint and both looks like and simulates capillaries. She says, 'Blush is a very important organ of the house. Regulates the temperature and keeps it warm and alive. Blue when cold, but blushes with red when warm.'"

https://laughingsquid.com/blush-a-radiator-that-simulates-capillaries-blushes-red-when-warm/

 My Source:

IDN, 2012. Volume 19, NO. 3. 080.

See  also:

Book: The Vital Question