Participant Instructions and FAQ

On behalf of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University we are glad to welcome you on August 11 to the virtual conference. A full event program can be found here for your convenience.

The remainder of this email attempts to cover all of the questions and concerns you may have about the symposium.

How do I prepare for the event?

Now that you have been accepted, you can get to work on your presentation materials. You will need two things: a video and a poster. Both of these will factor into the judging of your overall research, so be sure to submit your best, most professional work.

The video should be ~10 minutes in length and uploaded as an ‘unlisted’ video on your YouTube channel. You can use a webcam, smartphone, etc. but try to keep it professional (don’t film your presentation running in the park, for example). The poster style and format is up to you, but should be downloaded as a JPEG for us to upload to the conference and website. If you need more information on the video or poster process should click here.

Once your materials are finalized, email them Duncan.Lorimer@mail.wvu.edu and mdh0072@mix.wvu.edu by August 6.

What do I do the day of the event?

Our judges will have already looked at your video presentation the day before the event. This allows them to understand your research and have questions prepared beforehand. On the day of the event, the judges will assess your poster and ask questions they had on your video presentation. Afterwards, you’ll be able to wander around and view your fellow presenters' research.

Other events during the day will include keynote speakers, panels, and graduate studies meet-and-greets to learn more about opportunities that are open to you in the future concerning furthering your research and education at WVU.

How do I access the event?

Our conference will be utilizing the program GatherTown to provide as close to an in-person experience as possible, while remaining entirely virtual. A link for the event will be sent out closer to the conference. You can try out GatherTown for free, watch a video on it, or view our own tutorial on the symposium website here. This link will also include a basic map of the event.

The main event will all take place via GatherTown, but a Zoom meeting will follow that hosts the award ceremony. Again, links for these will be sent out closer to the event.

What are the prizes?

There are three poster halls in the event space: 

Physical Sciences 1

• Astrobiology, Biology, Chemistry

Physical Sciences 2

• Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics

Social Sciences and Humanities

• Anthropology, Communication, Environmental Science, History, Sociology, Psychology, World Languages

Each of these categories will receive a first, second, and third place prize, consisting of $300, $200, and $100. The award ceremony will take place at the end of the day during out closing session (which will be held over Zoom) once the judges have viewed every poster and the results are tallied.

Surveys

Lastly, please consider filling out our survey we emailed to you previously if you have not yet done so. This will help us track the quality of the event as well as make improvements for this, and future, events. We appreciate your help!