Creating
Professional Posters
Audrey Rorrer , PhD
Research Associate
UNC Charlotte
Characteristics of Quality Posters

Clearly & effectively communicates
research results

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Addresses the specific audience

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Concise, succinct, direct
Anticipate their knowledge level
Encourages discussion & interaction
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Use inviting graphs, charts, pictures
Poster Components
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Abstract

Statement of purpose

Results

Conclusions
Presented
Verbally to
your
Audience
at the
Celebration
in 5-10
minutes
Poster Components
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Abstract
 Overall summary paragraph of the project
Statement of Purpose
 The research problem and question, including a few key literature
citations in support of your argument or hypothesis
 Or- The component of your SLC that is being formatively discussed
Results
 The data results, findings, outcomes, etc. as applicable to your project
Conclusions
 What was gained, discovered, learned, recommendations or tips, etc.
as applicable to your project
Design Elements
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Maximize ink: use color and contrast
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Color palette of 5 or fewer colors
Up to 2 font types
Visuals: use graphs, charts, pictures
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Images are more powerful than words
stop
Examples
These are from Summer Research Experiences for
Undergraduate student projects at UNC Charlotte, and
from UNC Charlotte STARS
These are intended as examples, NOT templates
All were done in power point
EleMental: The Recurrence
Katelyn Doran, kedoran@uncc.edu
Amanda Chaffin, katla@wulfkub.com
Advisor: Tiffany Barnes, tbarnes2@uncc.edu
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Overview: EleMental the Recurrence is a single-player, three-dimensional game in which students have to program to complete challenges. The goal
is to help students understand of the concept of recursion.
Project: EleMental was designed to help students
visualize recursion, one of the more challenging
computer science subjects to grasp. The game is
built upon a student-created engine using the C#
language and Microsoft’s XNA Framework.
Development started on the project in June 2008.
The stack image is intended to help students
understand how recursion works in the
background while a program runs.
Motivation: Recursion is one of the most
challenging computer science topics for students
to understand. The main issue stems from the
difficulty students have visualizing the way
recursion works. The hope is that by creating a
visual of the flow of a recursive algorithm,
specifically Depth First Search, students will have
a better understanding of the material and will
be more likely to remain in the Computer
Science program.
The compiler, on the left, accepts student
code then compiles and runs it. The
student-entered code can actually alter the
game-play.
Game Play: At the start of each level players are presented with a coding
challenge to complete. Each challenge has the players filling in areas of actual
code. Players then get to compile and run their code to progress through the
world. Players walk through a binary tree structure following the principles of
depth-first search.
Lessons Learned:
Design: Keep the educational content as the
focus by being aware of which concept is being
taught and knowing the best way to implement
it with the tools available.
Architecture: Carefully plan the interactions
between game and educational components.
For EleMental, a new event manager system
had to be created to pass messages between
the game and educational activities.
Study: Ensure that the study will provide
conclusive results by pinpointing the target
audience and designing the study so it
accurately tests participant knowledge.
Depth First Search :
The game-play for EleMental takes place in a
3D environment which represents a binary
tree, a common data structure in computer
science. This tree is traversed in-game using
Depth-First Search.
Students receive visual feedback throughout
the game. Including feedback whenever
they have entered code incorrectly.
Study: There is a study in progress for EleMental. Participants
complete a pre-test before playing the game and then complete a posttest after completion of game play. Participants also complete a survey
based on their opinion of the game. Results look promising as most
participants feel the game is an effective educational tool.
Recursion & Stacks:
As recursive calls are made, the calls are
stored in a stack, a CS data structure, until the
correct value is returned to them. The stack to
the right is the stack illustration used in-game.
Contributions: Use of a working compiler
in-game eliminates the need for multiple
choice questions. The game also makes use
of 3D graphics, which is a change from
previous Game2Learn projects. There is
also a unique terrain modification feature
within the game engine which is an
excellent tool for instruction on data
structures. Each of these items helps to
create a better visual for the inner workings
of recursive code.
Future Work: To complete the current study
on EleMental. To assist in the upcoming
crossover study comparing EleMental to other
educational games. To create another game
teaching recursion based on my knowledge
from this project as well as my experience in
UNC Charlotte’s Design and Analysis of
Algorithms Course
References:
Barnes, T., Richter, H., et al. (2007). Game2Learn: A
study of games as tools for learning introductory
programming. Submitted to SIGCSE2007, Kentucky,
USA, Mar. 2007.
Maja Pivec. Editorial: Play and learn: potentials of game-based learning. British Journal of
Educational Technology, Volume 38, Issue 3, Page 387-393, May 2007, doi: 10.1111/j.14678535.2007.00722.x
Moser, Robert. A fantasy adventure game as a learning environment: Why learning to program is
so difficult and what can be done about it. Uppsala, Sweden. ACM, 1997.
Rabin, Steve. Ed. Introduction to Game Development. 1st ed. Charles River Media, 2005.
Nick Yee. CyberPsychology & Behavior. December 1, 2006, 9(6): 772-775.
doi:10.1089/cpb.2006.9.772.
Steiner, B., Kaplan, N., and Moulthrop, S. 2006. When play works: turning game-playing into
learning. In Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on interaction Design and Children (Tampere,
Finland, June 07 - 09, 2006). IDC '06. ACM, New York, NY, 137-140. DOI=
http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1139073.1139107
LIDAR-based Change Detection of North Carolina Coastal Areas
Dr. Zachary Wartell/Thomas Butkiewicz
Timothy Scott
Abstract:
Setup:
Results:
The long term goal of this project is to discover a robust method of using
historical remote sensing data to accurately trace coastal changes along
North Carolina's coast over the last decade. By understanding the
previous changes, those who study coastal regions can better predict
future changes due to hurricanes, etc. As a first step towards this goal,
one must make sense of the overwhelming amount of historical data
available to answer the important questions of where and when do we
possess sufficient overlapping sampling and across what time periods to
make meaningful comparisons. This project seeks to address this issue
by providing tools to both catalog available historical data, and allow a
visual exploration of the generated catalog to identify promising
overlapping survey extents.
1. The LIDAR data is downloaded from either NOAA’s website or other
online repositories.
• The newer file format for representing LIDAR data, LAS, can be now be
loaded and processed.
2. The LIDAR data is preprocessed and chunked into a custom file format
(.lps) that is highly efficient. Dividing the sample points into rectangular
units based on their location makes it easier to catalog and process
during change detection.
• All encountered data formats can now be converted to a single standard.
3. The chunked files are then triangulated to form 3D mesh
representations. These meshes are then simplified to multiple levels-ofdetail, while preserving boundary edges, as maintaining the coastline’s
accuracy is an important consideration.
• A new boundary-edge preserving simplification algorithm allows for
dramatically smaller meshes while still showing detail along the coastline.
• All of the LIDAR datasets from NOAA can be interactively viewed
superimposed along a high resolution vector representation of North
Carolina’s coastal border.
4. The 3D meshes and geospatial vector data such as the state’s outline is
loaded into our interactive viewer which allows the user to freely explore
the overall collection.
Figure 1: Original,
unprocessed LIDAR data
Introduction:
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is a remote sensing technology that
uses laser rangefinders to map the distances to remote surfaces. By
combining these rangefinders with GPS systems on an airborne platform,
large swaths of terrain can be accurately sampled at high resolutions. The
resulting data is then traditionally used to generate topographic maps at
high resolutions and derive other geospatial datasets.
NOAA has collected the datasets from LIDAR surveys along North
Carolina’s coastline spanning over a decade. By developing a method of
detecting changes between and across these historical datasets, we can
identify and extract the terrain features that have changed over time.
These changes can then be related to major events such as hurricanes to
identify the event’s effects on the coastline. This collection, however, is
both tremendously large in terms of overall size and also ambiguous as to
the formats, coordinate systems, and extents of the individual datasets
contained within. We have developed a set of tools that convert the
datasets to a standard format, extract iconic meshes to form a
manageable catalog, and finally provide an interactive environment for the
exploration of the entire collection. This allows future developers to
quickly identify what areas have overlapping samplings across multiple
time steps, and are thus excellent candidates to focus on for change
detection.
Figure 4:
Triangulation of
LIDAR data
Conclusion:
Figure 3: 3D processed LIDAR
data with water and land shaded
different colors
Research:
LAS File Format
Through this experience, I have learned how to work in the Visual Studio
environment, the basics of graphics programming using OpenGL in C++, explored
mesh simplification, and had lots of experience debugging code.
Future Work:
• Integrate the libLas library into existing LIDAR point processing software.
• Explore methods to reassemble the square simplified meshes into a single mesh for
each entire dataset, with minimal detail in the center, but a highly preserved coastline.
• Determine how to efficiently convert from multiple data formats and
coordinate systems into a standard custom format.
• More datasets to be processed through the pipeline and loaded into the LIDAR
viewer in order to show the entire coastal area of North Carolina.
New data sets
• Change detection to produce viewable 3D models of differences between multiple
overlapping LIDAR datasets.
• Modify existing processing algorithms to generate new levels-of-detail
while also preserving the boundary edges (coastline).
Figure 2: Chunks of
LIDAR data with
different colors
We have created tools that form a pipeline that begins with a massive and
disorganized collection of historical LIDAR datasets and ends with a standardized
catalog of lightweight 3D meshes. Our interactive exploration tool then presents this
catalog to the user in a intuitive map-based environment.
• Create an interactive application to allow exploration of multiple datasets.
• Ability to show these changes over time in a coherent manner.
Acknowledgements:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Dr. Zachary Wartell
Thomas Butkiewicz
Visualization Lab
Scaling the STARS Alliance: A National Community for
Broadening Participation through Regional Partnerships
PIs -Teresa Dahlberg, Tiffany Barnes, Heather Lipford; Project Director – Karen Bean
UNC Charlotte, Teresa.Dahlberg@uncc.edu, Tiffany.Barnes@uncc.edu, Heather.Lipford@uncc.edu, Karen.Bean@uncc.edu
The STARS Alliance
Regional Partnership
Model
Wom
en’s
Instit
ution
s
Ind
ustr
y
Par
tner
s
Com
munit
y
Colle
ges
Research
Universities
Minority
Institutions
STUD
CORPS
ENTS
Profess
ional
Organiz
ations
K12
Par
tner
s
Communi
ty
Partners
STARS Leadership
Corps (SLC) is . . .
STARS
Leadership
Corps – Tiered
participation of
students,
professionals and
educators in
research and civic
engagement
catalyzes regional
partnerships.
STARS Values
Technical Excellence – competence leads to
confidence and increases interest in computing
Leadership – soft skills, leadership, team work,
writing, communication, and work/life balance
prepare students
Civic Engagement & Service – using computing to
serve others increases engagement and changes
the image of computing
Community – a computing identity and sense of
belonging within a larger computing community lead
to retention and advancement in computing
Significant Outcome
STARS Celebration
STARS Celebrations are annual conferences
that build capacity by providing training and
development for students, faculty and
partners
6 Celebrations have included 1,357
attendees
17 new & 14 returning institutions in
2011
Outcomes include networking, leadership
development and team building
A national call to action…”to recruit,
develop and become the next generation of
computing professionals”
Institutionalized through multi-year Curricular
and co-curricular structures
STARS Demonstration Projects will be
nationally adopted, including new Tiered
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
ring) are advanced by SLC activities (middle
ring) to produce outcomes (inner ring) as
measured by leading (bottom) and lagging (top)
indicators.
Demonstration Projects
Mentoring
Identity-based tiered mentoring through common service
in the SLC.
Contact: E. Nathan Thomas, nathomas@poly.usf.edu
Pair Programming
Students work in pairs on programming assignments to
provide peer support and increase student learning.
Contact: Laurie Williams, Williams@csc.ncsu.edu
Leadership Projects are new and existing
regional programs for broadening participation.
The SLC puts a common wrapper around
disparate programs in diverse institutions.
The STARS Scaling
Vision for 2016
The STARS Celebration will be a national
Student Leadership Conference and forum
for fostering regional engagement for BPC
SLC Model - STARS Central Values (outer
Grad+UG computing enrollments in
STARS Schools. First 10 STARS
schools began 2007 (green). Second
10 STARS schools began 2009
(blue).
Digital library collection of SLC practices and
assessment
Go to www.bpcportal.org to search & share
STARS practices
 50 STARS colleges and universities will
institutionalize the STARS Leadership Corps
as a multi-year curricular and co-curricular
program
We have 31 members in 2011-12
Implemented as a repeatable annual
program that begins with the national STARS
Celebration and continues with Leadership
Projects undertaken with regional partners
STARS Increases Enrollment – Research schools who
implemented the SLC for 3 years increased enrollment in
graduate computing programs by 32%, while national
enrollment declined by 2%.
STARS Online
Online social networking & community of
practice
Go to www.starsalliance.org to join the 31
School Groups, 21 Affinity Groups, &
individual members
Tiered REU - new
Leverage A4RC courseware and practices to prepare
undergraduates for research experiences (REUs).
Contact: Tiffany Barnes, Tiffany.Barnes@uncc.edu
The STARS Institute nonprofit will sustain the
annual STARS Celebration and Community
Get Involved: Apply for
Funding
Adapt or Adopt the STARS Leadership Corps . . .
as a credit-bearing course or co-curricular
program
Participate in the STARS Celebration . . .
offer a session or workshop; convene your
project participants at the Celebration;
individual students and faculty interested in
participating can apply
Apply for Funding to Get Involved…
email Karen Bean (Karen.Bean@uncc.edu)
Assessing your poster?

CONTENT:


ORGANIZATION OF PRESENTATION AND EMPHASIS:


How well are the main points made? How well is the textual information presented? How well the
textual, pictorial and graphical information augment each other? Can someone understand the
information without clarification?
USE AND QUALITY OF VISUAL AIDS:
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Was the story-line well organized and easy to follow? Were important points highlighted?
CLARITY OF PRESENTATION:
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
Did the poster capture the technical essence of the whole project?
Were they appropriate and clear? Were they of good quality? Were they clearly and effectively
presented?
RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE:


(When you present it to other EAs, and at the Celebration)
Are you able to explain? Are you confident and poised?