All student oral presentations will last for no longer than fifteen (15) minutes and will be immediately followed by a five (5) minute question and answer session.
In order to provide constructive criticism that will enable the students to improve their communication skills, a panel of judges will evaluate the technical content and delivery of each student's presentation. Technical content will be judged on the basis of clarity of objective, presentation of theory and results, appropriateness of conclusions, and overall organization of thoughts. Speaking ability will be evaluated on the basis of audience contact, quality and use of visual aids, and response to questions.
The final standings are based on the scores given by the judges to the students in three areas: delivery, technical content, and response to questions. Each judge in each session is given an average based on the students that the judge has evaluated in the particular session. The student's final scores are adjusted in accordance with this average.
Five finalists will be chosen based on the final standings. The speaker with the highest evaluation will receive the Geoffrey D. Parfitt Memorial Award. In addition, two symposium awards and two honorable mention awards will be given.
In addition to the awards for oral presentations, a new award is being instituted this year for the best student poster. The posters will be judged by faculty members for their effectiveness in communicating research results through use of the visual medium. Judging will be based on the dual criteria of technical content (clarity of objective, presentation of theory and results, appropriateness of conclusions, and overall organization of thoughts) and visual impact. Posters will be evaluated by individual judges with the best poster selected by the consensus of the entire judging panel.
All award winners will receive money to be used for professional education expenses such as costs incurred while presenting a paper at a national conference or purchases of reference books, computer software, computer hardware and the like. The prize values will be distributed as given below.
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Parfitt Award (1): |
$300 |