AIChE’s Virtual Local Section is proud to host our first-ever undergraduate student poster contest.  One objective of this contest is to engage undergraduate students, particularly those not served by an active conventional AIChE Local Section, with the VLS, and to encourage their further participation in the Institute.

Qualifications:

1.  Contestants must be currently enrolled undergraduate students in an accredited chemical engineering program, anywhere in the world.

2.  Contestants can present posters dealing with their undergraduate research projects in an academic or government lab, or industry (co-op or internship).  Although the research project may have been collaborative, material presented should be the student’s own work.  Previously presented work is acceptable, but winners of AIChE Student Conference contests can’t enter the same work.

3.   Posters should communicate relevant background information, experimental methods, results, conclusions, etc, in a concise and visually appealing manner.  Figures are preferred over tables or text whenever possible.   Posters should be created using a single Microsoft PowerPoint slide of 48 inches horizontal, by 36 inches vertical, and should be saved with .ppt or .pptx, as well .pdf file extensions. Posters should be in English.

4.  Contestants must be available to present their posters the evening of April 12, 2012.  Exact times are to be determined but availability between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM Eastern (US) standard time is expected.  Contestants will connect virtually (reliable internet connection required) to the poster contest.  Winning contestants are required to give a 15-minute presentation at the VLS meeting on April 26, 2012 (9:00 to 10:00 PM).  Regardless of reason, failure of presenters to appear at the contest will result in disqualification, and failure of announced winners to present at the meeting on April 26 will result in forfeiture of prize.

Judging:

1. Posters and poster presentations will be judged in three broad categories: scientific merit & explanation (10 points), poster design and appeal (5 points), and communication/questions (5 points).  Higher numbers mean higher quality. 

2. For full scientific merit points, clearly communicate objectives and relevant portions of the following: governing equations and models, relevant chemistries and physics, motivations, other approaches, hypotheses, analysis methods, statistics, and/or scientific soundness of conclusions.

3.  For full poster design and appeal points, replace text and tables with figures where possible, use colors appropriately, show different approaches and/or steps schematically, all within a logical layout.

4.  For full communication points, know the material on your poster and be able to succinctly communicate to judges. 

5.  Judges understand that this is a learning experience for undergraduates and that those earlier in their education will not have the background of more senior students.  We encourage all to participate and learn through this contest, and will take into account the relative experience of the participants.

6.  Judging panel will consist of 5 members of the VLS leadership team.  Winners will be determined by the highest score out of 100 possible points (20 points from 5 judges).

Prizes:

1.  First place will win $250 from the VLS, sponsored by an AIChE McKetta Grant.  2^nd and 3^rd prizes will win $100 each. 

2.  In order to encourage more participation the night of the poster contest, we are asking student chapters that have students presenting to also tune in, either on the same computer or from their own lab/home.  The student chapter with the most students tuning in on the night of the poster contest (April 12) also wins a $150 donation from the VLS. 

3.  Winners will have their posters featured on the VLS website.  Some non-winning posters may also be featured.  All contestants grant VLS a non-exclusive right to display their poster and their recorded poster session online or in any other media indefinitely without compensation.

Timeline:

Feb 12, 2012 –contest announced

March 15, 2012 –abstracts (250 words or less) due to NoahChemE@gmail.com

April 10, 2012 –completed posters due (for presentation upload)

April 12, 2012 –poster contest

April 26, 2012 –winners present at VLS meeting

****Any questions may be directed to Noah Meeks, VLS Young Professionals Chair & Director, at NoahChemE@gmail.com ****