Student Ten-Minute Paper Competition Information

Evaluation and Judging

Students who present oral ten-minute papers (TMPs) in the Student Competition will be evaluated in the following areas:

• Scientific Content - 60%

  • Abstract
    • Abstract informative, well written (5 points)
    • Presentation correlated with abstract (5 points)
  • Content
    • Introduction and background w/ pertinent literature cited (10 points)
    • Objectives clearly stated and concise (10 points)
    • Materials and methods (study design) clear and concise (10 points)
    • Results and discussion clear, concise, and accurate (10 points)
    • Significance of results to field of study (10 points)

• Presentation - 40 %

  • Organization
    • Logical order, minimum redundancy (5 points)
    • Smooth transitions between presentation sections (5 points)
  • Slides
    • Legible with large fonts, color contrast, no conflicting backgrounds (5 points)
    • Text with no grammatical errors; not excessively wordy (5 points)
  • Delivery
    • Clear and audible speech (5 points)
    • Eye contact with audience (5 points)
    • Effective use of figures and/or tables (5 points)
    • Effective use of time (5 points)

Each paper is judged independently by three judges. In the event of a tie or a major discrepancy in scores, the jduges will meet with the Co-Chairs for the Student Competition to resolve the issue(s). 

Sessions

Students compete only against teh students in their session. If a student cancels a presentation after the program is printed, the moderators announce the cancellation and must wait the full 12 minutes before resuming the competition. We strongly encourage students to avoid cancellation to prevent disruption of the program. PowerPoint files should be uploaded in the meeting room 30-60 minutes before the session. Failure to do so will subtract time from your presentation. 

Each presentation is alloted a total of 12 minutes - 10 minutes for the presentation and 2 minutes to address questions from the audience. The moderator will stop a presenter who exceeds the time limit of 12 total minutes. Please time your presentation accordingly to avoid this embarrassing situation. 

Suggestions for Presenters

Visual aids can significantly enhance or severely diminish the effectiveness of your presentation. The following guidelines are general considerations:

• Avoid red-green combinations.  Approximately 10% of men and 0.4% of women have some form of red-green color-blindness.  If in doubt, print the figure or slide on a black and white printer.  This visual is what a severe red-green deficient viewer will see.  (Remember, this person may be a judge.)
• Enhance contrast between background, text, and figures, but do not use excessive contrasts.  Avoid dark-colored text and figures on dark-colored backgrounds and light-colored text and figures on light-colored backgrounds.  Avoid bright contrasts that are figuratively or literally painful to view.
• Use large and legible text fonts.  Text should be read easily from at least 10 meters away (minimum 18 point font, Arial).  Use easy to read, san serif fonts like Arial.  Do not crowd slides with text.
• Simplify graphs and tables or consider alternative visuals.  Complex graphs and tables filled with an excess of numbers are difficult to read and will detract from an explanation of results.