Call for Special Session

Important Dates

Workshop and Special Session Proposal Due:

March 31, 2025

Decision Notification:

April 7, 2025

Paper Submission Deadline:

June 21, 2025

Notification of acceptance:

June 28, 2025

Deadline for author / early registrations:

July 26, 2025

Conference:

August 30 - September 2, 2025

Deadline for cameraready:

September 16, 2025

Proceedings publishing:

September 30, 2025(estimated)

Accepted Special Session

Expanding the Role of Data Science in Social Inclusion:

Insights from Non-STEM Students in Japan

Data science has emerged as a pivotal tool for addressing social challenges, including financial inclusion, healthcare accessibility, and disability advocacy. However, its potential in promoting social inclusion remains underexplored, particularly among non-STEM students. This special session presents insights from a study conducted at Rissho University in Japan, exploring how non-STEM students perceive and aspire to use data science for social impact

The study surveyed 168 non-STEM students, including 134 freshmen, who attended a lecture titled "Where is Data Science Used?—Inclusion through Data Science" in November 2024. Among them, 89 were sports-strengthening club students, and 79 were regular students. The lecture examined successful applications of data science in finance, social welfare, public health, and international development, emphasizing its established role in finance and its emerging potential in social welfare and global initiatives.

To assess students' comprehension and interests, machine learning and text mining techniques were employed to analyze Likert-scale responses to six quantitative questions, as well as qualitative open-ended feedback to six additional questions. Methods such as the Ward method and K-means clustering were applied. Key findings include:

• Predictive Modeling for Student Engagement: Regular students exhibited a stronger interest and deeper understanding of the lecture's content compared to sports students.
• Sentiment and Topic Analysis of Perceptions: While sports students showed less understanding of theoretical concepts, they presented practical ideas for actionable applications and career paths.
• Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice: While sports students faced challenges with conceptual learning, they demonstrated clearer ideas for applying data science in practical contexts.

These findings suggest a potential unconscious bias that sports students may be perceived as less academically inclined, which could affect their engagement with learning. However, their feedback indicates a robust ability to connect data science to career opportunities, sometimes even surpassing regular students in generating practical application ideas.

By challenging assumptions about student capabilities, this session will explore how interdisciplinary education can better integrate data science to address social issues. Discussions will focus on developing curricula that inspire non-STEM students to apply data science skills to real-world challenges. Moreover, the study applied methodologies such as machine learning and text mining, which are not yet widely used in social science, demonstrating the potential of data-driven approaches to enhance social welfare, education, and effectiveness in resolving social issues.

Through the session, we aim to foster discussions on expanding career pathways for non-STEM students and enhancing data science’s role in creating equitable societal solutions.

How to propose your Special Session

1. An applicant for an IAR 2025 special session organizer must send a proposal to iar2025[_a_t_]iiiar.org. The proposal should include the following 7 items: 
   • Organizer’s Name
   • Organizer’s Email address
   • Organizer’s Affiliation
   • Country
   • Title of Special Session
   • Abstract of Special Session (between 150 and 500 words)
   • Expected number of papers to be submitted

   Special session / workshop proposal form

   We will receive the reply until 72 hours. If you have not received our reply, please resend your email.
2. The IAR 2025 program committee will review the proposal after receiving it, and notify the result to the applicant in about one week. If accepted, the applicant to the special session organizer is requested to submit the reviewer list to the special session chair in one week. Moreover, the special session organizer must pay attention to followings. 
   • The special session requires at least 5 papers that will not be subject to the regular review cycle.
   • Special session organizer have to send the accepted paper list to IAR 2025 program committee chair until the date of Notification of acceptance.
   • The special session organizer must register to the conference.
   • The special session organizer can designate a session chair. Only registered participant can be designated as a session chair to avoid no show onsite. The special session organizer also can hold the post of the session chair.
   • Please pick the “certificate of organizing special session” up at the registration desk of the conference venue. 
3. Call-for-paper or other information about the special session will be shown in the following website ( https://iiiar.org/iiars/iar/2025/call_for_special_session.php ).
4. The organizer will receive the information of schedule and procedures about paper submission and review, publication of the proceedings, and conference management. The organizer is requested to utilize the IAR 2025 website for paper submission. In the website, the organizer can assign papers to reviewers, and report review results to IAR 2025 program committee.

Benefit for special session organizers

The organizers can gather people who are interested in the theme you are also interested in, and referee the submitted papers based on your criteria.