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Poster Session

Deadline: Friday, September 11th, 2026

All 4th year graduate students are required to present a poster. A PDF of the poster must be submitted by the deadline to the poster submission form. All poster judging will take place in person.

In-Person Poster Session

Date: TBD

Location: UC San Diego Campus

Poster Judging Criteria

Judging for the best poster will be based on:

  • Content: Innovation, creativity, quality, and originality.
  • Clarity and organization: Is the poster well-written and composed? Do the conclusions follow logically from the results?
  • Communication: Presents central theme and results of research, communicates concisely and clearly, poster covers key points of research, and includes important data.

Equal weight will be assigned to each category, which will be ranked on a scale of 1-4, with 1 being fair and 4 being excellent.

General Poster Guidelines

  1. Your poster should meet the standard scientific poster size of 36" x 48" (inches) in landscape (horizontal) orientation.
  2. Display boards to mount your poster will be provided by the school. The board size is 36" x 48" (inches). Clips will also be provided to adhere your poster to the board.
  3. Place poster title and author(s) name at the top of your poster, with printed characters at least 1" high. The title should be the same as the title used for registering the abstract.
  4. The poster should have large, legible text and figures. Please describe results in a manner that is clear to a reader, even when you are not at your poster. Make sure the poster is readable from a distance.
  5. It is recommended that the poster be printed on coated heavy weight paper. Heavy foam core type posters are not recommended due to the type of display boards used at the Poster Session.

External Resources and Tips for Creating your Poster

Designing Conference Posters

Creating Effective Poster Presentations

Printing

It is highly recommended that you have your poster printed at least three days before the event date. If you wait until the last moment you may end up paying extra for printing or find that you cannot get your poster printed. The cost of poster printing is the responsibility of the student. Some vendors are listed below.

Vendors include:

  1. Triton Print & Digital Media(on-campus)
  2. Scantech Graphics
  3. Replica - Digital Printing and Copy (off Miramar Road)
  4. ReproHaus (contact: Janis Ohlson)
  5. Advance Reprographics
  6. FedEx Office (for last minute orders, but more expensive)

Set-up

Posters must be displayed no later than thirty minutes prior to the Poster Session start time.

Presentation Information

Each student will give a 2-minute talk (elevator pitch) regarding their research and should be prepared to answer questions from the judges about their poster and research.