Each and every group is required to prepare a poster and demonstrate their project. A poster fair for all 4th year projects in the Systems and Computer Engineering Department will be held in middle or late March (See Deadlines). A poster fair is like a science fair. You will set up a poster display as well as a demonstration beforehand to exhibit the final product of your project. During the fair, you will remain at your display and visitors will be invited to wander about, asking you questions whenever interested. It’s a chance for you to talk about your work.
The poster fair will offer many opportunities. Your poster as well as the demo will be graded by your supervisor and a second reader (not by students) using this evaluation form. The expectation will be that the work is complete, and the poster will describe, not the progress, but the solution. Faculty will use the time to assess the project and in particular to assess the individuals within a group project. The fair will also enable the students to evaluate themselves against others, so that they can later understand their final grade. Third year students will be encouraged to attend as preparation for their turn in the next year.
Preparations and Requirements:
- Each and every student must participate in the poster fair. A place for each group will automatically be assigned. Due to limited space, a group of n students will get at most n poster boards. In accordance to the guidelines stated in Group Requirements, the individual contributions of each team member must be cleared stated and visible in the posters. Ask your supervisor how to prepare your posters.
- All posters must exhibit the group number, as well as the student’s name, supervisor and project title.
- Since 2017/2018, all projects are required to demonstrate the project work.
- After completion of the Oral Presentations, each group must fill out an on-line Poster Demo Form (See Deadlines) in particular if special resources for the demonstration are needed. Only one form can be submitted per group.
- Requests will be processed in a first-come, first-served basis. Any changes to the form will move the request to the back of the queue.
- On the site of poster fair, each group will be provided space for your poster, and tables, power outlets and free WIFI for your demo. Ordinary equipment( such as laptop computer, extension cords and power bars) are the responsibility of the student. Consult your supervisor for any special arrangements.
- The department requests that all students use the same boards that are provided by the office. Poster boards and sticky tack will be distributed at SCE Main Office ME 4456 the working day before the poster fair from 9:00am to 4:00pm. If you wish to have the poster board(s) earlier, you can send the Undergraduate Assistant a request. You must be able to have a safe place to store the board(s) and another one will not be provided if you forget it the day of or lose it.
- The poster boards must cleaned off and returned immediately after the poster fair.
- A sample poster board will be placed in the department office as the poster fair approaches.
- If boards are not returned or are damaged, students will be required to pay a $20 replacement fee.
Writing Guidelines:
All posters must be prepared according to the following guidelines:
- Group poster: While it is a group poster, the individual contributions of each team member must be cleared stated and visible . Ask your supervisor how to prepare your poster.
- Your poster presentation will be attached to a background, provided by the Department. The background will be a stand-up poster board of dimension 36″ high by 48″ long. The sheets (typically 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets) may be attached to the background board using sticky tack provided to you. Two suggestions follow at the end showing typical arrangements.
- A minimum font size of 20 shall be used, with font sizes of 28 and above recommended. You are encouraged to test out the readability of your poster, standing three to six feet away.
- Each group’s posters must minimally must include:
- A title page, identifying the project’s title and group number, the supervisor and the students.
- An introduction that identifies the major goals of the project.
- A concise and specific summary of the major contributions or achievements of the project.
- A description or list that clearly identifies the contributions of each individual: which student did which portion of the project.
- Page numbers on each page, indicating the flow of the pages.
- Beyond the above specifications, you are free to design your poster as you will. In doing so, you must bear in mind that the purpose of the poster is to capture someone’s interest as they wander by, and invite them in to talk and learn more. It is not a report that must completely document all your efforts. To this end, the following suggestions are offered about the format and the content of your poster:
- A maximum of eight sheets is recommended. You may use more but when doing so, you must remember that the objective of the poster is not to document your effort in full but rather to illustrate the technical merit of the project.
- Figures, diagrams and graphs capture the interest and convey more information quicker than text. Text should be in point form. Paragraphs of text are hard to digest in a brief walk-by.
- Experiment with the use of colour.
