Mumbai: 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.
