Posters
Attendees! We highly encourage you to present a poster at our Saturday evening poster session.
CUWiP Poster Guidelines
CUWiP attendees are encouraged to present a poster on any scientific research with which you have been involved. The poster session will be Saturday January 21st. We seek to provide a welcoming environment and lively discussion for all presenters. However, if you have not been involved in research or do not feel comfortable presenting your research, don’t worry! Engage with the presenters during the poster session and learn about how you can become involved in undergraduate research.
When You Register
Submit a short poster title and abstract. Please keep abstracts short and to the point (1000 charcters or less).
See poster abstracts
Important Information
Posters will be displayed on a single 66″ wide and 48″ long panel. Landscape oriented posters should be no more than 60″ wide x 42″ high. Portrait oriented posters can be mounted side-by-side (2 posters that are each up to 30″ wide and 42″ high), however it is strongly recommended that you produce a single landscape poster. You must print and bring your poster with you to the CUWiP. We encourage you to ask your home institution to help you print the poster.
Some Suggestions
- The poster should include (1) a short title, (2) student’s name, (3) collaborator(s) and adviser(s) names, and (4) their department(s), (5) funding sources, (6) research objectives, (7) scientific background and significance to the field, (8) methods, (9) results/findings, (10) interpretation of results, (11) conclusions and directions for future research, (12) references.
- All language should be clear and unnecessary jargon avoided. CUWiP attendees span many disciplines within physics – don’t assume everyone has the same scientific vocabulary. Remember what it was like when you first started research. Limit the length of text – well thought out pictures, drawings, charts, figures, etc. can convey more information than a large block of text.
- All components of the poster should be easy to follow even in the absence of the presenter.
- If you’ve never made a research poster before, look at examples from your department or online. Practice explaining your poster to friends, labmates, classmates, etc. Get excited!
- As you prepare your poster, you can consider whether you have answered the following questions:
- Background/Introduction: What research project did you perform? Why is this project important? Any background info we need to understand the project.
- Research Tasks: How did you perform this research? What steps did you take to answer your research question? Which method/software is being used to analyze results (if any)?
- Findings: What were your findings? Here would be a good place to include well-labelled graphs/data collected from the research with explanations.
- Conclusions: How do your findings tie back to your original research question? What’s the big picture of this research project? Again, why is it important?
- Future Work : How do you expect your research to progress in the future? Where will you go from here?
Judging Criteria
Two judges will visit each poster and will give each of the following criteria a score between 1-5:
- Overall Visual: Are the components of the poster balanced across the space and are text and graphics legible from a reasonable distance (4 to 6 feet)?
- Overall Content: Are the components of the poster organized in a logical flow (from background through significance)? Do the findings support the conclusions?
- Overall Oral: Did the presenter sufficiently explain the poster and answer questions? Did the presenter speak clearly and distinctly? Did the presenter show enthusiasm about their topic?
- Overall Impact: Does this research have a potential to make a novel contribution to the field? Does the presenter understand the importance of this potential contribution? Does the presenter indicate they understand how this research fits into the overall field?