2015 Undergraduate Student Poster Competition

The Call for Abstracts for the 2016 Undergraduate Student Poster Competition will open on September 1, 2016.   

Over the years, the Undergraduate Poster Competition has become one of the highlights of the AIChE Annual Student Conference. With more than 350 students presenting last year and about 80 judges, it is the largest forum for Chemical Engineering undergraduates to present their research activity to the professional community at large.

The Poster Competition is open for any undergraduate student to present results from projects that they have carried out as undergraduate researchers at their university or during internships/co-ops. The Poster Session covers all key areas of chemical engineering, including sustainability, catalysis and reaction engineering, computing and process control, environmental aspects of chemical engineering, food, pharmaceutical, bioengineering, fuels, petrochemicals, energy, materials, and separations.

Interested in Participating? Please Read the Following Carefully

• This poster session is exclusively for undergraduate students. If you are a first-semester graduate student, you may still present work that you did as an undergraduate student. However, more senior graduate students are expected to participate in the professional meeting. Non-compliant submissions will be rejected.

• The deadline for abstract submissions is Thursday, October 22, 2015. Our goal is to get as many students involved in this as possible. However, the deadline is so tight with regards to scheduling that we will not be able to accept any late abstracts. Please discuss abstract submission with your advisor(s) well before the deadline!

• As in the past, all poster abstracts submitted by qualified presenters before the deadline will be accepted for presentation. Therefore, you do not have to wait for approval/acceptance before you start preparing your poster.  Please note that the capacity for the Poster session is 400 posters.  In the event that we receive over 400 submissions, acceptance prioritization will be based on date/time received.  
• Make sure that your advisor/supervisor/co-authors all sign off on your abstract before submission; all submitted abstracts become public information, so it is your responsibility to make sure that there are no confidentiality issues.
• Please note that this is a different session than the Undergraduate Student Paper Competition, which is an invitation only session for Regional Paper Competition Winners.  This is also different from the Undergraduate Research Forums session. 

Topical Areas

• As a part of the submission process, you will be asked to first pick a topic area from a list of 10 available research areas:

1. General
2. Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
3. Sustainability
4. Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology 
5. Separations 
6. Environmental
7. Education
8. Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy
9. Computing and Process Control
10. Materials Engineering and Sciences

• If you have any question about which topical area is best for your poster, please consult with your advisor/supervisor/co-authors. For topic selection, focus on the nature of the work that was done, not on pie-in-the-sky applications. For example, fundamental research into new polymeric materials should be submitted to the “Materials” topical area, even if the ultimate applications may be for novel drink bottles, which may suggest “Food”.
• Only if no topical area seems particularly appropriate for capturing a substantial portion of your work, you may submit it to the “General” topic area as last resort.
• It should also be noted that all posters could be moved to a different topic area by the session organizers if it is deemed appropriate based on the abstract of the work submitted.

Judging and Awards

Each poster will be judged by a panel of typically 3 or 4 AIChE professional members from academia and industry. You must be present at your poster from 10am until noon on Monday, November 9th to talk to judges in order to qualify for the Poster Competition. Awards will given to the top posters in each topical area at the end of the poster session. So, plan your flight home from Salt Lake City, UT carefully if you plan to present a poster.

Why should you participate?

• If you are interested in pursuing graduate school in chemical engineering, the poster session is a great opportunity to meet faculty from a large variety of chemical engineering graduate programs from around the country as they tour (and potentially judge) the posters.
• Remember to mention the fact that you are participating in the poster session to the graduate school representatives you meet during the Recruitment Fair on Sunday morning so that they can hopefully come see your poster and discuss your work with you.  Such interactions can make important differences in the recruitment and admissions process.
• Likewise, if you are looking for an industrial job, this is also a great addition to your resume, demonstrating that you have been active beyond the classroom.  Again, be sure to mention your participation in the poster session to company representatives at the Recruitment Fair on Sunday morning.

Some Practical Details

• You will be responsible for printing the poster and bringing it to the conference. If you have never printed a poster, ask your advisor for assistance; they have lots of experiences with these things and can tell you how best to get your poster printed at your institution. Commercial poster printing (e.g. Kinko’s) tends to be quite expensive; your university usually provides access to poster printers much more economically.
• Your poster must fit in a space of 4 ft wide by 4 ft high, which is the half of the size of a poster board. Any posters, visual aids etc. should all fit in the space provided. It is recommended that your displays be a bit smaller to guarantee that they will fit properly on the poster board.

Poster Session FAQs