School of Medicine

2024 Poster Design and Presentation: Medical Student Research Symposium

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Content

VoiceThread Recording Submission Deadline: Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024

Symposium Day: Thursday, March 7, 2024

Poster Design:

Upon abstract acceptance, all posters must be uploaded and recorded on VoiceThread by Feb. 15, 2024. All posters that are narrated on VoiceThread by the deadline will be officially listed in the Symposium Compendium and can be included in your CV. Posters that are not uploaded on VoiceThread cannot be listed on your CV.

Recordings on VoiceThread will undergo a first round of scoring by judges. The top posters in each category (final number depends on the total amount of posters per category) will be invited to present their work in-person in Rayzor Lounge on Thursday, March 7, 2024.

During the in-person presentations on Symposium Day, there will be a second round of judging (independent of the prior scoring of the recording on VoiceThread). The top scoring posters of the in-person presentations on Symposium Day will be awarded the Henry J.N. Taub Young Investigator Awards.

In addition, all symposium participants will have the opportunity to select their favorite poster via live voting on Symposium Day and the winner (the poster with the highest number of votes) will be awarded the “Most Popular Poster Award”.

  1. General Poster Design Guidelines:
    • Divide your poster presentation clearly into introduction, goal/hypothesis, methods, results, conclusion/discussion, and acknowledgement sections
    • Do not include your abstract on the poster
    • Make sure your goal/hypothesis is clearly stated
    • Either on the poster or verbally in your presentation, clearly define what role you had in the research and how much you contributed to the presented data
       
  2. VoiceThread Poster Design:
    • Prepare your cover slide (1 page) using appropriate software (e.g., Power Point): State the name and add a professional photo of the first author (if equal authorship: photos of all equally contributing authors), yet not of any co-authors or mentors. State your class year next to your name. State the title of your poster, yet no affiliations or names of co-authors.
    • Once the cover slide is ready for publication, upload the slide to VoiceThread as page 1 of your presentation
    • Once your poster slide (1 page) is ready for publication, upload the slide to VoiceThread as page 2 of your presentation
    • Optional: upload your abstract as page 3 of your presentation
    • In VoiceThread, the first author will record a 5-10 minute summary of the project. If equal authorship, all “equally contributing authors” (but not other co-authors) must contribute verbally to the recorded VoiceThread presentation to qualify for selection into the next round
    • Detailed instructions of how to upload pages and record in VoiceThread, as well as how to submit your VoiceThread link to the symposium website will be provided by email once your poster has been accepted for presentation.

Poster Presentation:

All VoiceThread recordings will be scored and the top posters in each category will be invited to present in-person at the Symposium on Thursday, March 7, 2024. To qualify for the Henry J.N. Taub Young Investigator Award, all equally contributing authors must verbally present their work on Symposium Day. Medical students who fail to present their poster on Symposium Day without prior notification will not be considered for poster presentation at future symposiums.

Students will be notified by Monday, February 26, 2024, if their poster has been selected for an in-person presentation. Students will then have 10 days to print their poster on paper. Printing costs for all accepted posters may be covered by the organizers, provided ALL of the following criteria are met:

  • The abstract was accepted by the organizers
  • The poster is printed by the Curriculum Office
  • The poster e-file (in pdf format) is submitted directly to the Curriculum Office by Thursday Feb. 29, 2024 at 5 p.m. (any posters submitted after this date and time will NOT be covered and printing will be the medical student's sole responsibility). More information about how to submit your poster will be provided upon abstract acceptance.
  • The poster needs to be formatted in size 5ft width x 3ft height (i.e. 60in. x 18in.) 
  • Posters printed anywhere else will NOT be covered at all
  • Medical student AND poster have to be present in person on Symposium Day, at minimum during the designated judging time (if either student or poster or both are missing, the student will be required to repay the poster printing and presentation board fee).

On Symposium Day (March 7, 2024)

  • Posters need to be hung up by 8:30 a.m. and stay until 2 p.m. If you would like to hang your poster early, the presentation boards will be available in Rayzor Lounge the night before the symposium.
  • Each presentation board will be labeled with a number and a category that matches your abstract number (abstract number will be given upon abstract acceptance); please use the board with your designated number.
  • Dress professionally (suit and tie are not required, but no scrubs or shorts)
  • Presentations will take place from 9 - 11 a.m.
  • A small breakfast and lunch will be provided

Judging Criteria (Virtual and in-person Poster Presentations):

Judges will be scoring your poster presentation and will look for the following criteria:

  • Medical student’s appearance: Well-prepared, engaged, confident, professional, on time
  • Quality of oral presentation: Clear and concise project overview and able to answer questions adequately
  • Quality of poster: Appropriate, understandable, and informative overview of your project
  • Quality of research (goal/hypothesis-driven study)
    • clear goal/hypothesis
    • appropriate methods to address the goal/hypothesis
    • conclusion(s) are supported by presented data and directly relate to the goal/hypothesis
  • Impact of research project: novelty (new concepts, new knowledge, new technology), validity of data
  • Medical student's involvement in the research (please clearly define what role you had in the research project)
  • Each poster will be rated on a scale of 1-10 (1=worst, 10=best)

Henry J.N. Taub Young Investigator Awards:

On Symposium Day, judges will score each in-person poster presentation and points from all judges will be added together. In each category (clinical, basic science, health system science, and educational research), the highest scoring posters will be awarded. The number of awards given for each category will be based on the number of abstract submissions per category.

  • First Place: $300
  • Second Place: $200
  • Third Place: $100
  • Fourth Place: $50

Award winners will be announced during the award ceremony, right after the Keynote Speaker.

Most Popular Poster Award:

This award will be given to the poster receiving the most votes by the audience/visitors on the Symposium Day. Voting will be electronic (QR code provided in Rayzor Lounge) and is non-criteria based. Each individual may only vote once. ($100)