Research Posters

Poster presentations are in important way for students to tell others about their academic activities. However, a good poster is more than just a research paper stapled to poster board. A good poster will be visually inviting to engage the interest of the audience. A good poster will use visual cues to lead the audience through a planned sequence of ideas to a conclusion. Even the best poster is improved by a conversation between the presenter and the audience in which the ideas in the poster are explained and discussed.

There are no rigid rules for successful posters. Sometimes the sponsor of a poster session will have specific guidelines for the size or format or even the content of the poster. Sometimes the audience of the poster session is a group of specialists in the same discipline. Sometimes the audience will be students and faculty from unrelated academic disciplines. Sometimes the audience will be the general public. The design of the poster should of course take into account your audience. However, even the most technical poster can be successful with a general audience if the presenter and the audience are able to have a mutually meaningful conversation about the ideas on the poster.

Poster sessions at professional conferences generally summarize completed work, often work that has been or will soon be submitted for publication. However, other posters sessions might be an opportunity to present research plans, ideas or theories and discuss them with colleagues or the public. Just as there are no rigid rules for how to construct a successful poster, there are no rigid rules for what kinds of ideas are appropriate for a successful poster. Of course, the sponsors for posters sessions often do have guidelines for poster content, but these are as varied as the possible areas of human inquiry.

It is often useful to follow "Heilmeier's Catechism" for posters:

• What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
• How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
• What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
• Who cares? If you're successful, what difference will it make?
• What are the risks and the payoffs?
• How much will it cost? How long will it take?
• What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

Dr. George Heilmeier developed the above list to help evaluate new ideas when he was at DARPA. The list might not be appropriate for every research poster, but his ideas certainly have broad application.

There are many websites that provide advice on how to construct a successful poster. Some are very specific to the research methods and expectations of particular disciplines and some are more generic. Here are some websites from other universities and from professional organizations on how to construct a successful poster.

• Creating Effective Posters by George R. Hess of NC State University and Leon H. Liegel of Oregon State University
• Research Posters 101 from the ACM.
• US Department of Energy Guidelines
• Writing and Presenting the Scientific Poster from the APA.
• How to make a successful research poster by Professor Randy Katz of the Department of Electrical Enginnering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
• How to make a research poster using powerpoint, a quicktime video from the University of Missouri.
• Visible Thinking, tips for poster presenters at the undergraduate research day at Duke University.
• Guidelines for SIAM presenters from SIAM.
• Edward Tufte Website on the visual presentation of ideas.

We hope these tips are helpful to you as you begin thinking about this important way of presenting your ideas to others!