Mandi : The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Mandi), one of
India’s leading IITs, has successfully hosted the Applied Behavioural Sciences and Decision
Making Conference (ABSDM 2025). The two-day prestigious
conference brought together researchers, academicians, and practitioners from
India and abroad to deliberate on cutting-edge research in behavioural science,
cognitive modelling, and decision-making.
Organized
by Prof. Varun Dutt (IIT
Mandi) and Prof.
Sumitava Mukherjee (IIT Delhi), ABSDM 2025 served as a vibrant
interdisciplinary platform to examine the cognitive, social, and technological
dimensions of decision processes. The conference underscored the importance of
applying behavioural insights to address real-world challenges in climate
change, public policy, and emerging technologies. The event was supported by
the TATA Trust Project (PI:
Prof. K. V. Uday), whose sponsorship played a key role in the
successful organization of the conference.
The
conference was inaugurated by Prof.
Laxmidhar Behera, Director, IIT Mandi, and featured remarks by Prof. Joachim Meyer, Celia and Marcos Maus
Professor of Data Sciences, School of Industrial and Intelligent Systems
Engineering, Tel Aviv University, as the keynote speaker, along
with Prof. Arnav Bhavsar,
Chair of the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications (IKSMHA)
Centre at IIT Mandi; Prof.
Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury, Chair of the Centre for Human-Computer
Interaction; and Prof. K. V.
Uday, Chair of the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster
Management.
Addressing
the conference, Prof.
Laxmidhar Behera, Director, IIT Mandi, highlighted the
significance of behavioural and decision-making research in shaping the future
of artificial intelligence, education, and sustainability.
ABSDM
2025 featured a distinguished keynote address by Prof. Joachim Meyer, Celia and Marcos Maus,
highlighted the interface between humans and decision-support algorithms in
critical fields such as healthcare, defence, and transportation. His empirical
findings and models provided valuable insights into improving trust and
effectiveness in algorithm-assisted decision-making.
The
conference featured insightful
discussions on interdisciplinary and application-driven themes such as behavioural
interventions for environmental sustainability, real-world applications of
drift diffusion models, etc. Over 30
research papers and poster presentations also showcased the depth of
applied behavioural science research across areas including climate decision-making,
cognitive biases, human–AI interaction, and organizational behaviour. With active engagement and
cross-disciplinary collaboration, various roundtable and open house discussions
examined how behavioural research can inform public policy, climate action, and
technology design.
The
conference concluded with a General Body
Meeting, during which participants discussed the formation of a Society for Applied Behavioural Science and
Decision Making to strengthen research, education, outreach, and plans for
the next conference. ABSDM 2025
successfully brought together a multidisciplinary community of researchers
working at the intersection of psychology, engineering, economics, and data
science. With continued support from academic and research institutions,
including IIT Mandi and Tata Trusts, the future of behavioural science and
decision-making research in India looks promising.
Also,
as a similar initiative, IIT Mandi organized the 7th Winter School on Cognitive Modelling
(WSCM 2025) under the aegis of the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications (IKSMHA) Centre supported by grants from the TATA Trusts and
IKS division, Ministry of Education.
The winter school served as a platform to bring together experts and students
from diverse disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, computer science,
and engineering to explore the latest developments in cognitive modelling and
brain sciences.