Judging Criteria

One of the major goals of the Graduate Student Symposium is to give students experience presenting their research. Presentation skills will be invaluable throughout your career. It doesn’t matter how great your research accomplishments are if you cannot communicate them in a clear and effective manner. To help improve their presentation skills every student will receive written feedback regarding their presentation from a panel of Minnesota faculty and alumni. An evaluation form (PDF | DOC) has been prepared to help the judges assess your presentation. Please consider the criteria listed in this form when preparing your presentation. The panel of judges will also choose one presenter out of each session that they consider deserving of a travel award. The “best” presentation will be chosen considering the both the scientific content and communication effectiveness of the student.

Awards

Each winner will receive a certificate and $500 travel award to be used to present the student’s research at a scientific meeting. One award will be presented in each of the four sessions. Only Ph.D. students in their third year are eligible for these awards.