Creating Research Posters

If you are participating in the poster session at the end of the semester with your class, your faculty member may submit your poster to ITS for printing. Check with your faculty member if this is the case. 

If you need to submit your own poster printing request, you can do so by submitting a ticket at: https://washjeff.happyfox.com/home/. Make sure that you place your request well in advance of when you need to have the poster. You will need to save your poster as a high-resolution PDF, suitable for printing, and attach it to your ticket. 

If you're taking your poster to a conference or meeting you may want to think about how you'll transport the poster so that it's not damaged. Rolled posters can be held with rubber bands or string. Make sure you know if you'll need to provide your own push pins or Velcro strips to hang your poster. 

Here are some points to consider for the presentation:

• Stand off to the side of your poster so folks can easily see it.
• Make eye contact with folks as they walk by and try to look approachable. 
• Have a short overview of your research ready to give when people say "Tell me about your project". Some folks may not read more of your poster than the title. 
• Anticipate the follow-up questions that people might ask you about your research and have some short answers rehearsed. Common questions might be:
  • Have you considered X? 
  • Who else is doing similar research? How does your research fit with other research on this topic?
  • What did you learn?
  • What were some challenges in this project?
• If someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer, it's OK to say you don't know. If what they are asking is something you should know and temporarily forgot you could offer to take their contact information and follow up with them. If you do that, you must follow up with them. 
• Bring water - you'll be talking a lot! 
• Dress professionally, but make sure your outfit is comfortable and makes you feel confident!