Research poster presentations are primarily for projects not in the arts and humanities. This includes science, social science, nursing, technology, and business. If you are unsure whether a poster format is the appropriate format, ask your project advisor.
The poster projects submitted by groups with less than seven students are judged and prizes are awarded for top presentations in each judged category. Large group projects including seven or more students will not judged.
In addition, the University Libraries Award recognizes the scholarly work based on a foundation of careful background research and literature review and given to entries that demonstrate excellence in information literacy.
1. How to Register Your Poster Project
Consult with your research advisor prior to registering the project to ensure the correct information is submitted. Project registration form opens February 21, 2025 and is due by March 26, 2025.
To register your project, you will need:
- The title of your project
- Advisor's name and email - This is the name and Penn State email of the professor with whom you spent the most time discussing your project. If other advisors contributed to your project in addition to the lead advisor, please indicate their name(s) only on the submission form.
- An abstract - The abstract is a summary of your project. A good abstract gives the reader a quick idea of what your project was about, why it was worthwhile doing, and what your key results were. Your abstract can be 150 to 250 words.
- Project's Broad Topic
- Arts and Humanities (includes: Art, Literature, Music)
- Business
- Communications
- Education
- Engineering (includes Mathematics)
- Health (includes: Nursing, Fitness, Exercise Science)
- Science (includes: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Earth Science, Geology)
- Social Science (includes: HDFS, Psychology, Sociology, History, Geography)
- Technology (includes: Programming, Security, Websites, Social Media)
- Project type - This helps the organizing committee place your poster in the appropriate area and assign the right judges to it. Accurate classification of the type of project you did is important, as it determines on what criteria your project gets judged. You should consult with your project advisor to determine the most appropriate project type.
The project type choices on the registration form are:
- Literature review – compiled and synthesized published research articles
- Empirical – collected and analyzed original data from an experiment or study
- Proposal – conceptualized and planned a research project
- Design - built a structure, made a robot, wrote a piece of software, made a pamphlet, developed some teaching material, a marketing strategy, etc.
- Theoretical Research - proved a mathematical theorem
- Exhibition – project that student and advisor want presented, but not judged
- Student Information - The names, emails and majors for all students working on your project.
2. Approval Process
- ADVISOR APPROVAL: The project registration form submission will be sent to your project advisor for approval and you will receive an email from "Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate" notifying you that the project submission is either "APPROVED" or "NEEDS CHANGES."
- CHANGES: If your project submission NEEDS CHANGES, you'll submit changes via email to your advisor AND Suzanne Morgan in Academic Affairs at [email protected].
3. Creating Your Poster
Posters will be displayed online in addition to being printed for the Undergraduate Research Fair. See the Undergraduate Research Web Showcase for examples from past research fairs.
Posters for the Undergraduate Research Fair and Exhibition are required to be in 36" wide x 48" high Portrait (vertical) format with a half-inch margin. There is no strict design expected for the poster, but students are strongly advised to discuss their ideas with their project advisers. Keep in mind that your presentation should be visually appealing, grammatically correct, stylistically fluent, clear, and meaningful. Organize it carefully using the typical sections of a scientific reports, as detailed in the following poster template:
Create Your Poster in PowerPoint:
Rather than using the template provided, you can create create a new PowerPoint presentation following below instructions :
- Open a new PowerPoint file.
- Click on the Design tab.
- Click on Slide Size.
- Click on Custom Slide Size in dropdown menu.
- Choose “Custom” in “Slides sized for” dropdown
- In the Width box, set for 36 Inches.
- In the Height box, set for 48 Inches.
- Under Orientation, click Portrait.
- Click OK.
- Select Ensure Fit.
- Your PowerPoint slides will now be 36" x 48" Portrait.
- Be sure to include a half-inch margin to allow for printing and lamination.
Name Your Poster File: When naming your Power Point file to be submitted for the Undergraduate Research Fair, be sure to include the same title that you used when you registered your project.
4. Submitting Your Poster
Poster submission form open March 26 - April 2, 2025.
Posters will be displayed online in addition to being printed for the Undergraduate Research Fair. See the Undergraduate Research Web Showcase for examples from past research fairs.
Students are strongly advised to review their completed poster with their project advisor(s) before submitting to IT for printing and posting online.
Due to time constraints of the Undergraduate Research Fair, students WILL NOT have the opportunity to review the final printed poster before it's laminated for display at the Research Fair. IT will review printed posters and notify students of any format or printing errors.
Submit Your Poster for Printing
5. Presenting Your Poster
Students will be required to give an oral presentation for the judging of their poster projects at the Undergraduate Research Fair on April 9. So, make sure that:
- You are present at your project. Posters without a presenter will not judged.
- You prepare a five-minute oral presentation describing your project to the judges or other interested guests.
- Your presentation does not exceed five minutes; judges will be instructed to observe this time limit. Note: A videotape or demonstration cannot be submitted for the discussion.
- Your description is clear and concise and include the major points presented on the poster.
- If you worked with collaborators, including your adviser, your presentation clearly describes your role in the overall project.
Special requirements:
- Students who need special equipment (such as a computer) will be accommodated to the best of our ability; but it is up to the student to make us aware of this need as soon as possible.
- A computer will NOT be allowed in the poster presentation unless it is necessary (such as projects that involve development of a computer program).
- Students are required to generate a poster for their presentation but may use additional equipment (such as laptop computer) to actively demonstrate software programs as part of the presentation.
- Students may not use a computer simply to enhance the presentation of material that can be adequately displayed on the poster.
- Students who wish to keep their projects should take them down at the end of the fair and take them away.
6. Judging Criteria
Undergraduate research projects are judged with rubrics appropriate for the project. The Undergraduate Research Fair and Exhibition organizing committee determines the best judging rubric based on information provided with project submissions and, if necessary, consults with faculty research advisors.
Large group poster projects including seven or more students will not judged.
For the poster presentation, download and use the judging rubrics listed below to prepare a competitive entry:
- Rubrics for Empirical Research Projects
- Rubrics for Literature Review Projects
- Rubrics for Proposed Research Projects
- Rubrics for Theoretical Research Projects
- University Libraries Information Literacy Award Rubric
If you are interested in judging research projects at the Undergraduate Research Fair and Exhibition, complete the online judging registration form.
