STUDENT PRIZE PAPER CONTEST RULES AND STUDENT CONFERENCE GUIDELINES

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PURPOSE

GENERAL

1.

A Student Prize Paper contest shall be conducted annually in IEEE Region 1 for all undergraduate students.

2.

The contest shall consist of competitions at the Branch, Section Area and Region levels.

3.

At the option of the Executive Committee and Counselor of a Branch, a Branch contest may run in accordance to local rules.

4.

A Section Contest maybe held in lieu of, or may be supplementary to, a Branch Contest.

5.

The Area boundaries shall coincide with those established be the Region or, where none exist, shall be established be the Regional Student Activities Committee.

6.

The Area and Region Contests shall be conducted in accordance with the rules set forth and published by the Regional Student Activities Committee.

7.

The Regional Contest shall ordinarily take place before May 1. The Branch and Area Contest shall be planned so as to appropriately precede the Regional Contest and to allow proper administration of the contest within the Region.

8.

A Regional Prize Paper Contest Committee shall be established in Regional 1. Responsibilities of the Committee include: <#16#>

a)

Arranging and chairing the Region Contest.

b)

Approving all expenditures from the Student Activities budget for the Prize Paper Contest.

c)

Appointing Area Contest Chairpersons if needed.

d)

Collecting and forwarding two copies of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place papers in the Regional contest to the Manager of Member Services at IEEE Headquarters for publication in the annual publication, ;SPMquot;IEEE Student Papers;SPMquot;.

e)

Arranging the prizes and certificates for the winning students and plaques for the winning schools.

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9.

The are contest Chairperson shall have the following responsibilities: <#18#>

a)

Arranging and chairing the Area Contest.

b)

Approving and forwarding expense statements for the student authors, (using standard IEEE Expense Report form A-95), to the RSAC chairperson.

c)

Forwarding copies of the winning papers to the RSAC Secretary-Treasurer.

d)

Arranging the prizes and certificates for the winning students.

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ELIGIBILITY

1.

The entrant must be an undergraduate student at a school in Region 1 at which there is an IEEE Student Branch at the time of entry and presented art the Branch Contest.

2.

A student must complete and submit an application for membership as a Student Member in the IEEE <#23#>before<#23#> his/her paper can be considered for judging at the Branch level.

3.

A student may resubmit his/her own papers only if his/her paper did not win an award at any previous year'sRegion 1 Prize Paper Contest.

4.

The entrant may collaborate with a group of not more that three other authors, who must all meet the above criteria.

NUMBER OF ENTRIES

1.

There shall be no limit of entries in the local Branch Contest. If there is only one entry, the Branch Counselor may declare the author submitting the paper the Branch winner.

2.

Each Branch may enter the 1st and 2nd place winning papers in the next level contest.

3.

No paper may be entered in the are or Regional Contest without prior approval and certification of the local Branch Counselor.

PRIZES AND TRAVEL EXPENSES

1.

The Regional Prize Paper Committee has budgeted funds to cover most of the contest expenses. The IEEE Life Member Fund Committee contributes the amount just prior to the contest.

2.

Additional prize money may be made available at the option of the Chairperson of each contest.

3.

The schools represented by the winning Region 1 papers shall receive a duly inscribed plaque or a letter of recognition.

4.

Co-authors shall share equally in allocation of cash awards.

5.

Minimal or partial travel expenses for contestants and Counselors to attend the Area and Region 1 Contest shall be paid from the Regional Student Activities Committee budget, (use standard IEEE Expense Report form A-95), unless other funds are available.

6.

The RSAC budget shall support the Region 1 Prize Paper Contest expenses unless other funds are available.

SUBJECT MATTER

1.

Papers should cover technical, engineering, management or social aspects of subjects related to the areas with which the IEEE is concerned, and with which the author is familiar, either from courses, hobbies, work in the summer or other similar experience.

2.

The work need not be original in content, since the primary function of the Student Prize Paper Contest is to improve the student's communication skills. The work should, however, be original in treatment and concise in coverage of the author's contribution to the subject.

WRITTEN PREPARATION

1.

All papers must be typewritten, double-spaced, using only one side of <#53#>#tex2html_wrap_inline53#<#53#> white bond paper. Equations and symbols that cannot by typed shall be handwritten.

2.

The pages of the paper must be numbered consecutively. The Introduction, Body, Conclusion, Tables and Diagrams may not exceed 15 total pages. If Appendices are used, the paper may not exceed 20 total pages.

3.

In general, the contests of a Student Prize Paper shall be organized as follows: <#38#>

a)

Removable Flyleaf page: Because the judges must handle the papers without knowledge of the identity of the author, his/her school, or the Branch Counselor, it's required that the paper itself show no identification of the author, school, or Branch Counselor. The name of the author, school, and Branch Counselor must be shown on the Flyleaf page, which will be removed prior to distribution to the judges.

b)

Title page: On the Title page, only the title of the paper should appear. The title should consist of the minimum number of key words necessary to portray accurately the contest of the paper. Reader interest is stimulated by a well-chosen title. The author's name should NOT appear on the Title page, nor should any other names of persons or schools.

c)

Table of contents: The Table of Content should consist of a list of the parts of the paper and their page number in the order in which they occur.

d)

Abstract: The abstract should not describe the paper, but should give, in brief, the essential facts of its contents. For example, a brief statement of the problem or objective and a concise summary of the results or conclusion, touching upon methods or other details only if they are unique and if they are of some particular significance. The abstract should not be longer than 100 words.

e)

Introduction: The Introduction should lead to the development of the subject so that the reader may obtain a clear understanding of the significance of the paper prepared. This can often be done by briefly giving the state-of-the-art as background, then bringing out the added advantage of the method of approach. Emphasize the importance of the results and conclusions.

f)

Body: To assist the judges in maintaining objectivity, all mention of the author's name, school, and Counselor should be restricted to a single, removable Flyleaf page. this means no mention of the author's name, school, or Counselor should be made in the article. Any references to the author's school should read ;SPMquot;the university;SPMquot; without giving the actual name. The main argument of the subject is carried out in the body of the paper, complete with supporting data. The argument should proceed in a logical sequence according to a prepared outline. Support data and results can be presented most effectively as curves, charts, and tables. Standard graphical symbols and abbreviation should be used on all drawings. (Refer to ;SPMquot;Graphical Symbols for Electrical and Electronics Diagrams;SPMquot;, IEEE STD 315.) Well known abbreviations may be used in the test, but should be refined where used for the first time, followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis. Generally, the use of abbreviation should be confined to tables and illustrations. Illustrations and tables should supplement, not duplicate, text materials; likewise, they should complement, not duplicate each other.

g)

Conclusion: The conclusion is often considered the most important part of the paper. The Conclusion should be stated concisely in a separate section at the end of the paper. If there are three or more conclusions, better emphasis can be obtained by numbering each conclusion and setting it in separate paragraph.

h)

Tables: Generally, each table should be typed on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively using Roman numerals, e.g., Table I, Table II, etc. Small tabulations or listing may be made in the text where necessary for continuity. Each table should be titled by giving a brief description as a heading following the table number at the top. Ditto marks should not be used in tables, but brackets may be used to group information an several lines.

i)

Diagrams: Three types of diagrams may be used: photographs, oscillograms, and line drawings. The reading material on illustrations should be kept to a minimum. In short, the reading material should be included in the captions. Portions of the illustrations may be identified by letters and explained in the captions. Whenever feasible, combine several curves in the same coordinates. Their identifying letters or numbers should be in clear spaces between cross section lines. Readers generally prefer having the figures distributed throughout the article, although it is also permissible to bind them together at the end of the paper.

j)

Appendices: Detailed mathematical proofs, development of equations and examples that are subordinate to the main argument, should be treated in the appendices. Main equations as they are developed consecutively, are numbered in parenthesis opposite the equation in the right margin. The equations, illustrations, tables, and appendices should not be numbered separately, as duplicate number lead to confusion. All, (equations, illustrations, tables, and appendices), should be numbered consecutively in the text using Roman numerals.

k)

References: To enable the reader to consult important works by the author, incidental to the preparation of his/her manuscript, and other related literature that might be helpful, a suitable reference list should be appended. Reference should be numbered consecutively and should follow the form shown next. For an article: B. Lawrence, B. H. Weil, M.H. Graham, ;SPMquot;Making On-Line Search Available in an Industrial Research Environment,;SPMquot; Journal of the American Society for Information Science. pp. 364-369. Nov-Dec 1974.

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4.

Each student Branch shall determine the number of copies of each Prize Paper that shall be submitted for entry in the Branch Contest. Six copies of papers eligible for entry to the next level contest must be furnished by the author(s). The distribution of these shall be determined by the regional Prize Paper Contest Committee.

5.

Authors of paper to be presented at the Regional Contest will be notified at least one week before they are to make a presentation.

6.

Authors of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place papers at the Regional Contest will be supplied with appropriate publication format material and instruction for submitting their paper for publication in the annual ;SPMquot;IEEE Student Papers;SPMquot;.

7.

Each of the six papers submitted for judging at the Regional Contest shall be securely fastened in its own individual folder.

8.

The Regional Prize Paper Contest Committee shall adequately publicize the dates for Area and Regional Contest. Each Student Branch Counselor is responsible for assuring that adequate Branch publicity is given to the contest. A discussion of the value of the contest, including encouragement of certain student who appear as potential entrants, should be done early in each academic year.

ORAL PRESENTATION

1.

Fifteen (15) minutes shall be allotted for the oral presentation and five (5) minutes for questions from the audience.

2.

The Prize Paper Contest Chairman shall arrange a timing system with the following characteristics: <#43#>

a)

A signal will be given at the beginning of the oral presentation.

b)

A warning signal will be given at the end of 13 minutes.

c)

A stop signal will be given at the end of the 15 minutes.

d)

The student contestant should cease speaking when the stop signal is given. The judges will asses a penalty for continuing to speak beyond the 15 minutes time limit.

e)

If the contestant continues to speak, he/she will be stopped by the judged at the end of twenty (20) minutes.

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3.

Individual asking questions during the discussion period shall state their name and affiliation. If the audience does not ask any question, the judges should do so. Questions will be stopped at the end of five (5) minutes.

4.

Demonstrations or display apparatus may not be employed as a part of the paper presentation. Visual aids may be used, but these are limited to slides, placards, charts, and viewgraphs.

5.

The following equipment shall ordinarily be available during the oral presentation, if requested by the author sufficiently in advance:
mm slide projector
Overhead/Viewgraph projector
Projector screen
Pointer
Blackboard
Podium

6.

When a large audience is expected, a public address system shall ordinarily be provided.

JUDGING

1.

Papers will be evaluated and judged on the basis of twenty equally weighted judging criteria. Evaluation and judging is based on 55 weight given to the written presentation and 45 weight given to the oral presentation. (Note that a total of 70 of the judging criteria is related to the student's written and verbal skills, emphasizing the Prize Paper Contest's primary function to improve the engineering student's communication ability.)

2.

Where the number of entries exceed the number allowed for oral presentation, the judges shall receive copies of all entered at least two weeks prior to the oral presentation date. On the basis of the written evaluation, the number of entries shall be narrowed tot the allowed oral presentation number. Each contestant shall be notified at least one week prior to the day of the oral contest on order to confirm whether the paper will be presented.

3.

The oral presentation of papers entered in the Area Regional Contest should be limited to the top twenty appears, as determined by written evaluation of all entries submitted.

4.

There shall be a minimum of three (3) judges, but no more than seven (7) judges. The use of the same judges for both written and oral presentation is optional, but highly encouraged.

5.

The Branch Executive Committee and the Branch Counselor, with input for the Region 1 RSAC, shall select the judges of the Branch Contest.

6.

The Chairperson of the Area and Regional Prize Paper Committee shall select the judges of the Area Contest.

7.

The judges shall be selected to represent a cross section of various disciplines in electrical, electronics, and related field of engineering. The Section and Regional SAC should be called on to assist in the selection of judged at all levels of the Prize Paper Contest.

8.

The judges should have a record of experience in communication ideas orally and in writing to others.

STUDENT CONFERENCE

1.

A student Conference may be held in conjunction with the Prize Paper Contest to coincide with the location of the Annual Prize Paper Contest or the Region 1 ELECTRO Conference, (either in New York City area or Boston, MA area).

2.

The Region 1 Director, RSAC, and RSR shall jointly develop a conference agenda based upon student input from previous year's meetings.

3.

Two student from each branch in the Region may attend with all expenses paid by the Region. All other student are also invited on pay-as-you-go and space available basis.

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