NSF funding for this project ended October 1, 2015. As of August 31, 2023 the site was archived. All videos, posters, and discussions remain available.
Judges will post queries to you by midnight EDT on May 22nd. You need to answer each of their queries by midnight on Wednesday, May 23rd! Your answers will be considered in the scoring by the judges that will be completed on Thursday, May 24th.
During the competition, only you and the judges can see these queries and replies. The rest of the IGERT community sees and can post to the general discussion area. After the competition is over however, the judges' queries and replies will be made visible to logged in IGERT.org members.
Visit their presentations and leave comments. Vote for the 4 videos/posters (one can be your own) in the “Community Choice” competition. Remember, 4 of the 25 awardees will be chosen by the IGERT Community Choice.
All IGERT community members are urged to visit the videos/posters and leave comments. Please play an active role and reply to these posts.
The public will see the posters and will be able to watch your videos. They will not be able to see the judges’ queries/replies, but they will be able to see and post to each presentation’s discussion.
Click on Videos & Posters in the top navigation. This will bring you to a page where you can view all 114 presentations. In the left navigation, select the “By Judging Group” filter. Your judging group’s name will be displayed along with all the presentations in your group.
IGERT faculty were invited to judge in this competition. Those faculty who volunteered were matched to judging groups based on common keywords and themes that were chosen by presenters. It is important to note however, that the IGERT projects encompass a wide array of fields and research themes and that careful consideration for conflicts of interest between judges and presenters also had to be accounted for. Hence there is not an exact match between judges’ fields of expertise and that of the presenters. Click on Judges in the top navigation and you will be able to see all of the judges in this competition. Click the “Judging Group” header to sort the list based on each of the judging groups.
Judges will score each video/poster based on the judging rubric. Judges will select 20 awards (2 from each judging group).
Four additional awardees will be selected by Community Choice votes. Each IGERT.org member is invited to select 4 presentations that they most meritorious as their Community Choice votes. Judges will not participate in the Community Choice competition. One additional Public Choice award will be made to the presentation that received the most “likes” on facebook. This award is being made to encourage communicating science to a general audience. All IGERT Community Choice and Public Choice votes must be cast by 12 noon EDT on May 25th.
No, judges' scores will not be shared with you. However we will send a compilation of their comments to you after the competition.
Facebook’s Graph API is a data resource which can be used to retrieve current statistics for Facebook activity. Our system connects to this API to take regular snapshots of “like”-ing activity for each presentation in the competition; “like”-ing activity is different from “share”-ing or “comment”-ing activity; only “liking” activity counts towards the Public Choice award. We monitor the snapshots for unusual activity, and treat this data as canonical, taking the final snapshot once voting has ended at 12 noon EDT on May 25th. The counter on Facebook “like” buttons provides only a rough indicator of “like”-ing activity, and we do not reference that for the Public Choice Award.
Both logged in IGERT.org members as well as guests visiting the competition can see and post comments to your presentation.
Your video and poster will be archived on the site. You still maintain all copyright to your work. In addition, judges' queries/replies will be made visible to logged in IGERT.org members looking at this archive. (Guests will not be able to see these however.)
Friday, June 1st at the NSF PI meeting in Washington DC. Shortly thereafter it will also be announced on the competition website and on IGERT.org .
Your PI and program coordinator will be notified and will receive the award which they will distribute to the presenter(s). This award should be used for professional development related travel and activities.
Yes, we assume presenters may want to edit their posters as they consider the questions left by judges and the comments posted by the community. Physical posters should be no larger than posters must fit within a 36"(h) x 48"(w) space (landscape orientation) and will be mounted to a cork board for display at the Meeting.
The schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, May 22: Judges log-in (using their IGERT.org password) to watch the videos and read the posters for each of the presenters in their group. By midnight, each judge must post 1-2 queries to each presenter.
Wednesday, May 23: Judges visit videos/posters to see the replies to their queries that have been posted by presenters.
Thursday, May 24: Judges must score each video/poster within their group by 10 PM EDT . Judges must score every video/poster within their judging group for their scores to count.
Friday, June 1: Awardees will be announced at the NSF PI meeting.
At the top of your screen in the black bar, you will see a shortcut to “My Presentations.” This link is present at the top of every page on the site when you are logged in.
You can start on May 22nd, but you will need to return to each presentation on May 24th to judge how well presenters have answered judges' queries. All scores must be submitted by 10 PM EDT on May 24th.
At the very top of every page in the black bar, you will see a link to the “Control Panel.” The Control Panel provides a link to a summary of your scores so that you can keep track of the videos/posters that you have partially or fully completed. You will also see a link in the Control Panel to other judges’ scores within your judging group.
Presenters will not see your scores, but they will be sent the comments that you provide at the bottom of each scoring rubric. Only your comment and not your score will be shared with the presenter. Please make sure that your comment is supportive by providing constructive critique.
Yes. You can save what you have done as you go through the rubric so that you can leave and return, as necessary. To return to scoring rubrics that you have started, click “My Scores” in the top bar of any page.
Once you have completed judging a video/poster and have entered scores for each item on the scoring rubric, be sure to click “submit” so that they can be tallied with the others. You must score all videos/posters within your group. If you only score some, none of your scores will be counted! This judging must be completed by 10 PM EDT on Thursday, May 24th .
From the Home page, you can navigate to the My Scores summary page. Here you will see which videos/posters you have completed and which you have yet to do. You must score all presentations within your group . If you only score some, none of your scores will be counted ! The Home page will also help you to keep track of how many queries you have sent, as well as how many unread replies you have received from the presenters.
Yes! In order to count your scores, you must submit scores for all of the videos/posters in your judging group . If you skip any, none of your scores will be counted , as we need to maintain scoring consistency in the groups. The presenters are aware that the judges will have varied fields of expertise and their presentations should be made toward that of a general audience.
If your group has a tie (e.g. three presenters who all have the same score), the appointed chair will be asked to break the tie. He/She might do so by reviewing comments of the judges on each of the presentations, by emailing the judges in the group, or by arranging a conference call (free conference line provided in the Control Panel). The emails of the judges in your group are available in your Control Panel and you should feel free to email each other as needed. You can also email the entire group by clicking “Email Group.”
The emails of the judges in your group are available in your Control Panel and you should feel free to email each other as needed. You can also email the entire group by clicking “Email Group.”
We leave this up to the judges in each group. If you would like to arrange a conference call, you can email your group to find a time (free conference line provided in the Control Panel). This is not required.
The judging must be complete by 10 PM EDT on May 24th so that the scores can be collected and tallied to announce at the NSF in person meeting.
It is our hope that this competition will be successful in engaging the public in the understanding of science research and the value of interdisciplinary graduate education. To encourage this, we will have one “Public Choice” award to be given to the presentation that has been 'liked' most frequently by the public on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, please participate by “liking” your favorite presentation. All votes (“likes”) must be in by 12 noon EDT on May 25th.
Yes. Webinars will be held for judges to walk them through the site and the judging rubric. Look for webinar invitations as we get closer to the competition dates. In addition, PDFs of the posters will be mailed to all judges who requested them ahead of the competition start date.
Click on “Videos & Posters” (top right of the screen) to view all presentations. Use keywords to filter presentations and view those that are in your area of interest.
IGERT is the National Science Foundation’s flagship interdisciplinary training program, educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers by building on the foundations of their disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training. Please visit About the IGERT Program to learn more.
On each video/poster page, there is a link to the presenter’s IGERT.org Profile page where you can find more information. Presenters post contact information on their Profile page.
Yes! It is our hope that this competition will be successful in engaging the public in the understanding of science research and the value of interdisciplinary graduate education. To encourage this, we will have one “Public Choice” award to be given to the presentation that has been 'liked' most frequently by the public on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, please participate by “liking” your favorite presentation. All votes (“likes”) must be in by 12 noon EDT on May 25th. Please spread the word through your social networks!
Yes, all guests visiting the videos/posters can post questions and feedback to presenters by posting to the discussion area on their poster/video page. Presenters will be monitoring this area too so be sure to check back to see replies that are posted to your questions.
Anyone (guests and logged in members) visiting these presenters' poster/video pages can see the questions and replies that are posted to these discussions.
We advise you to use up-to-date versions of Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or IE.
Click the “Fullscreen” icon in the toolbar that displays across the top of each poster. This “screen” icon is next to the % Scale bar. You can click it again to escape back to the page size view. We encourage you to use fullscreen for the best view of a poster.
Click “Download Poster” underneath the poster (bottom right-hand corner). You can then print this PDF as you would print other files from your computer.
25 presentations received an award. Of the 25, 21 were selected by Judges' choice (due to a tie), 8 were selected by Community Choice (due to an overlap with Judges' Choice), and 2 were selected by Public Choice (due to overlap with the other awards).
Guests, future employers, and interested members of the public are invited to browse the presentations and watch the videos provided by the presenters. If you are interested in contacting the presenter you can click on their name to see their bio.
Guests are also encouraged to contribute to the discussion for each presentation, as well as by voting on their favorite presentations using their Facebook account and “Public Choice” voting.
Click on Videos & Posters (top navigation) to view all presentations. Use keywords to filter presentations and view those that are in your area of interest.
You can vote for the 4 presentations that you find to be the most meritorious by clicking the “Community Choice” button that you will see on each poster/video page. You can view your Community Choice votes by clicking “My Activity” in the top black bar on each page of the site.
Yes. You can select and deselect up to 4 votes at any time. However voting closes and is finalized at 12 noon EDT on May 25th .
With the exception of the 50 designated competition judges, any logged in IGERT member (program coordinators, trainees, faculty, alumni, and partners) can vote for their top 4 favorite presentations in the competition. Members of the public, who are not members of IGERT.org cannot vote for Community Choice. All votes must be in by 12 noon EDT on May 25th.
It is our hope that this competition will be successful in engaging the public in the understanding of science research and the value of interdisciplinary graduate education. To encourage this, we will have one “Public Choice” award to be given to the presentation that has been 'liked' most frequently by the public on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, please participate by “liking” your favorite presentation. All votes (“likes”) must be in by 12 noon EDT on May 25th. Please spread the word through your social networks!
Yes! You and all guests visiting the videos/posters can post questions and feedback to presenters by posting to the discussion area on their poster/video page. Presenters will be monitoring this area too so be sure to check back to see replies that are posted to your questions.
Yes. Use the same log-in as you do for IGERT.org. Once you log-in you will be able to comment, vote, and chat. None of these functionalities will be available if you don’t log-in.