Student Research Contest

The research contest is held in two parts. Students display posters on Friday afternoon for about an hour. Judges speak to each student and determine five finalists who present their papers in a session on Friday afternoon. The results are announced on Friday.
The poster displays require a room large enough to accommodate all the posters. Size restrictions for posters are stated in the rules. Posters are usually taped to a wall or set up on an easel for display at the discretion of the host. It is best to set posters up in a public area such as a lobby so that attendees will be more inclined to talk to students.
The Director of the contest is responsible for issuing certificates. The certificates are really the only documentation an award recipient receives. Awards are given at the Saturday Luncheon.
The rules will specify acceptable poster sizes. Make sure the size is compatible with your display area. Posters can be taped to a wall or set up on easels. It’s best to be consistent—that is, don’t give some students easels and some a wall to use.
Abstracts from students are due around September 18. The Director has the abstracts reviewed by a panel of referees (typically graduate students have been the referees) and selects the top n submissions (where n is the number of posters that can be accommodated in the display area at the conference site) for the contest at the conference. The Director informs the student authors of the acceptance/rejection of their submissions, along with comments from the referees, by the deadline for early registration for the conference (usually around October 16), and requests the final versions of the accepted abstract s. At the same time, the student authors of the accepted abstracts are informed of the supplies (easel, table, push pins, etc.) that will be available at the conference site so that they can prepare their posters accordingly. These student authors are also informed again of the contest process at the conference (poster display on Friday, selected five present on Saturday morning, awards given at the award ceremony at the end of the conference on Saturday afternoon), and asked to bring their posters as well as anything they might need for their presentation (electronic slides, software for demonstration, etc.) to the conference. They are also reminded that they have to register for the conference to be able to participate in the contest at the conference. Once all the final versions have been received, the Director creates one document (PDF format preferable so that there are no formatting issues) of the addendum to the proceedings. The addendum contains a title page, a table of contents and the accepted abstracts. The Director sends the addendum file to the conference chair at least one week prior to the conference.
The conference chair makes arrangements for the display area for the posters at the conference. Each spot for a poster should have an easel, or table and a chair. The conference chair informs the Director by October 1 about the number of posters that can be accommodated in the display area and the supplies and materials available to each student poster presenter.
Use three judges at the conference. The final results were are computed by giving the score on the written evaluation a weight of 40%, and the score on the presentation component a weight of 60%. The paper should be original work. Judging on content will take place prior to the conference and judging on the presentation at the conference.
The Director creates the rubrics used by the referees judging the abstracts before the conference and by the judges at the conference.
After the top three winners have been decided, the Director requests the gift amounts ($75 for the first prize, $50 for the second prize and $25 for the third prize) from the CCSCSE treasurer noting the names of the winners in the request. The treasurer writes cheques of the appropriate amount payable to the winners, or gives cash for the awards. The Director presents the awards to the winners at the award ceremony at the end of the conference.

Deadline: 30 days before the conference.
Suggested starting date: 180 days before the conference.

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