International Student Research Paper and Poster Competitions

Deadline: March 24th, 2024
Bootcamp: info in English here (info en español aquí)
Thesis Competition: info here

During the LACCEI Annual Conference 2024 (Costa Rica), the student full paper research competition and the competition of poster student are held. The objectives of the student competitions are:

1. Motivate engineering students to use and demonstrate their creativity, knowledge and skills to solve problems.
2. Promote academic exchange between students from different universities and countries.
3. Provide an opportunity for research professors to recruit potential graduate students.

Description

The work could be based on a final project for a course or a thesis. The work and paper must be original and cannot be results of faculty research. A full paper or short paper must be submitted and accepted to compete. There is a limit of 3 papers per author and 7 authors per paper and Students are required to show their Student ID when registering at the conference. Presentations must be done by students and at least one student author must be registered (either student or full registration) by the author registration deadline for the submission to be published.

• International Student Research Paper Competition

A student or team of students submits a full article (10 pages maximum) after it is verified by at least one professor at their university, designated as Mentor (s). All authors must be students and the teacher is listed as a mentor, not an author. The top 10 articles are classified as finalists in the competition and they should give a 3 minutes presentation and answer questions from judges and participants to determine the winners. Template presentation: click here. The rubric is:

• Content: Information is presented in a logical sequence – 10 pts.
• Content: Technical terms are well-defined in language appropriate for the class – 10 pts.
• Content: The group presented details about the methodology and analysis of the results – 20 pts.
• Content: Valid conclusions summarize the presentation – 10 pts.
• General about the presentation: Speakers use a clear, audible voice – 10 pts.
• General about the presentation: The length of the presentation is within the assigned time limits – 10 pts.
• General about the presentation: Speakers are dressed in business casual attire – 10 pts.
• General about the presentation: The group answered the questions from the audience – 10 pts.
• Slides: The slides contain accurate information, are well-prepared, informative, and not distracting – 10 pts.

• International Competition of Poster Student

A student or a team of students submits a short article (2 to 5 pages maximum) after it is verified by at least one professor at their university, designated as Mentor (s). All authors must be students and the teacher is listed as a mentor, not an author. All works in this category must be presented to a series of judges for 3 minutes using a poster and they should answer questions from judges and participants to determine the winners.

Evaluation

All the complete articles of this contest will be reviewed by 3 members of the technical committee of the student competition stipulated by LACCEI. Short articles are reviewed by 1 member of the technical committee.

The following aspects will be used to evaluate the papers:

1. Innovation
2. Feasibility
3. Visual presentation
4. Social impact

Awards

The medals or monetary prizes are presented during the Closing Ceremonies or Gala Dinner of the annual LACCEI Conference. All participants and mentors receive a certificate of participation, and their paper is published in the Conference Proceedings under ISBN and ISSN numbers and archived online for future citations.

The top 10 finalist papers in the Student Research Full Papers Competition will have DOI and will be indexed by SCOPUS.

First place in the Student Research Full Papers Competition will receive the LACCEI Award medal and a full entry for an international conference or a monetary award.

Instructions for the poster competition (only face to face)

1. We recommend a minimum font size of 24 pts. Bold section names. The poster should be clearly readable from a distance of 2 meters. Dimensions: 24″ wide x 36″ high (60.96cm wide x 91.44cm high).
2. Language: Spanish or English.
3. Orientation: vertical
4. We encourage the use of pictures, graphics, and any other illustrative material.
5. Students who submitted a full paper and were selected as finalists will present in a special session within the conference just prior to the poster competition. The finalists will make a Power Point presentation: 10 minutes maximum.
6. All participants at the poster competition will present in front of their poster an “elevator speech” (3 minutes maximum) giving an overview of the problem and results at the poster competition. They will be asked questions by the judges and the audience and can give a demonstration or show a video if appropriate.
7. You may want to include the followings: title, authors, affiliations, faculty mentor, abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusions, and future work.
8. The following links are examples of how to make a poster:
   • http://www.craftofscientificposters.com/
   • http://www.personal.psu.edu/drs18/postershow/
   • https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/scientificposterguide/chapter/scientific-posters/
   • https://www.washington.edu/brand/templates/research-posters/
   • https://www.science.org/content/article/how-prepare-scientific-poster
   • https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

Important Links

• Student Paper Template designating the faculty mentor (finalists): TEMPLATE FILE
• Powerpoint for Paper presentation: HERE
• Poster Student Template: HERE
• Click HERE for instructions on how to submit.
• Click HERE to go to the submission website ConfTool. Use the track: “International Student Paper Research Competition” and “International  Competition of Poster Student”.

CALENDAR 2024

• Deadline for submission of papers – March 4, 2024
• New Deadline for submission of papers – March 24, 2024
• Evaluation of works – March 24-May 17, 2024
• Invitations to participate in Phase 2 (Top 10) – May 17, 2024
• Deadline for submission of video – May 18, 2024
• Presentations – only July 18 (Thursday), 2024

NOTE: “The top 10 Student Full Papers will be published with an ISBN, ISSN, and DOI and will be indexed in recognition of their effort”.

Submit Your Project Now: