Student Paper Competition Submission Information

Submission Guidelines

• Please submit your paper as a regular “technical paper publication” on the conference submission site (select MSNDC). The conference organizers will identify the papers eligible for the student paper competition.

• Please  submit to the symposium that best matches the technical content of the paper. 

• ELIGIBILITY: The lead author and presenter must be a student

• The 10-page maximum limit will be strictly enforced to ensure fairness. Competitive papers longer than 10-pages may be asked to resubmit a 10-page version prior to final evaluation.

To aid authors, the anticipated evaluation criteria are listed below. Both the paper, and presentation will be evaluated.

Manuscript Evaluation

• Originality: 

• Distinguishing the paper from the authors’ previous work

• Distinguishing the paper from the research in that area

• Technical content and quality: 

• Literature review

• Method description

• Results and analysis of the results

• Novelty of the method 

• Relevance and contribution: 

• Relevance of the paper to the symposium topic

• Contribution of the paper to the symposium topic 

• Organization and clarity:

• Fluency of the paper

• Definition of the mathematical terms and concepts used in the paper

• Quality of the figures 

• Relevance of the figure captions with the content of the figures

• References to the figure in the text

• Necessary information about the paper and contribution in the abstract and conclusion 

Presentation Evaluation

• Introduction: 

  • • The research question/hypothesis was clearly stated.

    • The goals and specific objectives were presented.

    • The project had sufficient, supporting background.

•  Methods and results:

  • • The methods were clearly outlines/explained.

    • The presented acknowledged limitations of the study.

    • The results were clearly explained/highlighted.

• Conclusions: 

  • • A review/summary of the project was presented.

    • The significance of the results was discussed.

    • The applicability of the results was discussed.

• Presentation style: 

  • • Presentation was clear, readable, well-structured, and logical.

    • The presentation fit into the allotted time.

    • The student seemed knowledgeable, exhibited good voice projection and confidence, and responded well to questions from the audience.