HICUP @ RecSys 2025

At this year’s ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2025), HICUP Lab showcased their research work and actively contributed to the conference through organizational and reviewing roles.

Marko Tkalčič played a key role in the conference as one of the organizers for the Late-Breaking Results (LBR) track, serving as LBR & Demos co-chair. More details about the committee and roles can be found here. The track highlight can be viewed here.

Furthermore, Arsen Matej Golubovikj was recognized as a distinguished reviewer for the second consecutive year.

In addition, HICUP Lab presented an LBR paper co-authored by Arsen Matej Golubovikj and Marko Tkalčič, titled Rethinking Subjective Features in Recommender Systems: Personal Views Over Aggregated Values.

Abstract:
Subjective features of content items, such as emotional resonance and aesthetic quality, have become increasingly important in recommender systems (RecSys), as the field moves beyond objective content and behavioral signals. Traditionally, such features were treated as fixed item-level properties, aggregated across users. However, emerging evidence suggests that subjective features are inherently user-dependent, shaped by individual interpretations and personal perspectives. This paper presents the first direct comparison between fixed (aggregated) and user-specific (subjective) item representations for modeling subjective features in RecSys. Using three datasets spanning movies, videos, and images, with with subjective features, such as eudaimonia, hedonia, emotion, and aesthetics, we evaluate the impact of the representation strategy (i.e. fixed vs. user-specific) on recommendation performance across multiple algorithms. Our findings show that user-specific representations consistently outperform aggregate ones, often with statistically significant improvements. These results underscore the importance of modeling subjectivity at the user level, offering concrete guidance for more personalized and effective recommendation systems.


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