29th ANNUAL SIGMA XI Early-Career POSTER PRESENTATION

Abstract Due Date: Monday, january 31, 2022 Friday, February 4, 2022

Poster PDF & Recordings due date: Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Presentation Date: Wednesday, march 30, 2022

Awards Ceremony to follow

The NIST chapter of Sigma Xi invites all early-career researchers to record a poster presentation for our annual event. The poster content should focus on your NIST research topic, or research from a previous institution if you are new to NIST.  The Early-Career Poster Presentation will be held online in 2022 on Wednesday, March 30.  All participants and attendees are invited to the virtual awards reception at the end of the day where the most outstanding posters will be announced.

Rules and regulations

• Open to NIST staff and associates who have earned a Ph.D. or other terminal degree within the last five years.

• One submission per author.

• Poster presentations at the 2022 Early-Career Poster Presentation will consist of three parts:

  1. One-page poster PDF (required)

  2. Five-minute pre-recorded presentation (required)

  3. Live poster Q&A (optional)

  Presenters must upload a one-page PDF of their poster with an audio or video walkthrough (no longer than 5 minutes), which will act as a guided presentation for attendees and judges. The poster PDFs and audiovisual component will be played on the day of the event and will also be available for viewing by all NIST staff and associates starting one week ahead of the event day.

  To provide attendees the opportunity to ask questions or give feedback, we will be hosting live poster Q&A sessions during the event. Posters will be organized into groups of up to 8 based on topic. Each group will be available via virtual meeting for a live Q&A session of no more than 20 minutes following the playing of each recorded poster presentation from that group. Each presenter will introduce themselves and their poster topic and then take questions from the audience. The presenters are highly encouraged to participate in these live Q&As on the day of the event, which will be considered by the judges. Outstanding and Most Outstanding posters, as determined by a panel of NIST judges, will receive a commemorative plaque.

Additional information for presenters:

Poster & Recording Instructions:

A one-page poster in .PDF format is required.  A recorded presentation of said poster (5 minutes or less, please) is also required.  

 There are two ways in which you can record your poster presentation:  

• The first option is to record a verbal walkthrough as an audio file. For this, presenters can use the Voice Recorder application (Windows), the Voice Memos application (Mac OS), or any app of their choice on a smart phone to record the presentation as either an .m4a or a .mp3 audio file. Listeners will be looking at your poster .PDF while the recording is playing, so please be sure to verbally describe which section you are currently talking about as you “lead” them through your poster.

• The second option is to record your poster presentation using PowerPoint. For this option, you may include a video of you speaking, if you so choose. We do not recommend that you attempt to present the entirety of your poster in one PowerPoint slide, as the font and graphic size of your poster will likely be too small for the viewer to resolve. For this reason, we suggest that you break up the poster into smaller parts that can be displayed across several PowerPoint slides (for instance, taking screenshots of poster sections with snipping tool software and then pasting them into PowerPoint). You may then guide the viewer through your poster in slide form, but please remember to keep the presentation under the allotted time limit.

For either option, there are no specifications or rules regarding the dimensions of your poster, but please limit your presentation time to 5 minutes or less.

Submission Instructions:

Posters and pre-recorded presentations are due March 9th, 2022.  Please name your submission files as “last name_first name_ecpp”.  

For example, if I was presenting a poster this year I would submit two files: 1) a .PDF file of my poster named “biacchi_adam_ecpp.pdf” and 2) either an audio file named “biacchi_adam_ecpp.m4a/mp3” or a recorded PowerPoint presentation named “biacchi_adam_ecpp.pptx”.  To submit your poster and recording, please email the files to the NIST Sigma Xi contact person listed below for your poster category:

Physics: Adam Biacchi (adam.biacchi@nist.gov)

Biological Sciences, Chemistry: Chandler Becker (chandler.becker@nist.gov)

Polymers, Materials: Ran Tao (ran.tao@nist.gov)

Engineering & Manufacturing, Mathematical/Computer Sciences: Nathan Mahynski (nathan.mahynski@nist.gov) 

Description of the day of event:

On March 30th, we will welcome everyone to the event at 10am ET via Microsoft Teams.  This will be followed by four one-hour poster sessions starting at 10:30am ET, with a lunch break in-between the 2nd and 3rd sessions.  Each session will have four concurrent Microsoft Teams rooms, divided by category.  The first ~half of each session will consist of playing the pre-recorded poster presentations for the audience and fellow presenters.  The second ~half will be a live Q&A session, moderated by assigned session chairs, in which members of the audience or fellow poster presenters can ask questions and pursue a lively discussion.  Please plan to be present during your assigned session with a functioning camera and microphone so that you can answer questions and participate in discussions about your poster.  At 4:30pm ET we will have a closing ceremony using Teams during which “outstanding” and “most outstanding” posters will be announced.

Judging:

Judges from across NIST will review your poster and presentation after the submission deadline (March 9) and before the event (March 30).  On the day of the event, judges will observe both the pre-recorded presentation and the Q&A session that follows.  At the end of the day, the “outstanding” and “most outstanding” poster from each virtual room will be announced and the recipient will receive a spiffy plaque during the following weeks.

 Please contact Adam Biacchi or Ran Tao if you have any questions.