• About the Department
• Undergraduate Programs
• Graduate Programs
  • Program of Study
  • Current Students
    • Graduate Handbook
    • Funding Information
    • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
    • Thesis & Dissertation Resources
    • Career development
  • Prospective Students
  • Facilities
  • Worcester, WPI's Home City
• Faculty & Staff
• Research
• About WPI

Poster Guidelines

Poster Size: 36" x 28"

The Biology & Biotechnology Department will provide each MQP project team a tri-fold board 36" x 28" for Project Presentation Day students to pick up at the department main office.

Picture of group in upper left corner

All posters must have a picture of all group members on the upper left corner of the poster. The picture may be a print of a digital image, but faces of group members must be easily discerned.

Text must be visible from a distance

Recommended Letter Height
Main Title	15 mm	65 Point
Section Headings	10 mm	35 point
Regular Text	8 mm	25 point

 Boards fold for easy transport.

Set up at the start of your session and remain at your poster

All poster presentations are assigned to one of three 1-hour 45 min sessions. Students should plan to set up their posters in the 15 minutes prior to the start of the session and must remain with the poster for the full session. Exceptions to the requirement to remain at the session are granted on a case-by-case only for students who must present their work simultaneously in another department. Attendance will be taken at the start and end of each session.

All posters remain with the Biology & Biotechnology Department

At the end of each poster session students must take their poster down so that the next set of students may put their posters up, and must leave their poster in the Biology & Biotechnology department main office.

Scientific Content

A scientific poster should read much like a scientific paper or the outline to a scientific paper. The poster should have the same major sections as a paper including Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Bullet points or short sentences usually provide the best means for presenting text.

Abstract

Abstracts must be at least 80 words, but preferably between 150-200 words and must effectively summarize the research project including specific results. A good Abstract succinctly summarizes the work providing enough detail that the audience can understand the research and be able to assess if the research interests them.

Introduction

The introduction must provide sufficient background material for the audience to understand the goal of the research project and its value and importance in the context of the field. At the end of this section the audience should be able to understand why the researchers studied this problem and what questions the researchers aimed to answer.

Methods

The methods section in a poster presentation should provide an overview of the techniques used in the project and the approach taken by the researcher(s). This section will differ most between a poster presentation and a typical scientific paper. Presenters should limit the detail of the techniques used and focus more on the approach taken and why that approach is the most appropriate for the questions being asked by the research project.

Results

Data with statistics should be presented in easily understood tables, graphs and/or images. Text should explain what data appear in which tables/graphs/images and which experiments generated which data. Data interpretation should not appear in this section.

Discussion

Interpretation of the data and conclusions made from the data should be presented only in the discussion. For a poster a few short statements stating what the researchers concluded, why they arrived at those conclusions and the importance of the conclusions should provide a good Discussion.

Awards

Posters will be presented in three sessions. Each session will have a winner and the overall winner will receive the Presidential Award for the department. All winners will receive a certificate and monetary award. Sessions have been arranged largely by scientific content of the project so that projects in the same field will be judged together.

Judging

Faculty will judge the posters for scientific content and presentation to determine award winners. The ability of the students to communicate their research to the judges plays the largest role in the presentation. Judging criteria will be:

Scientific Content

1. The objectives of the project were clearly stated.
2. The key ideas were clearly explained.
3. The presentation was well organized.
4. The presentation ended with a conclusion.
5. The conclusions were warranted by the data.
6. Technical and conceptual difficulty of the project.

Presentation:

1. The student demonstrated professional communication skills.
2. The student used technical terminology appropriately.
3. The student demonstrated genuine enthusiasm for the project.
4. The poster was neat, organized, and attractive.
5. The student demonstrated a mastery of relevant concepts.
6. Effective teamwork was evident in the project and presentation.

 

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: October 02, 2006 12:29:28