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The annual Student Paper competition is held at SoutheastCon. Each student branch in Region 3 is invited to submit its best single entry. The guidelines for this competition are discussed below.

1. Timetable

March 1: The entrants must e-mail a PDF version of their papers to the Regional Student Activities Chair (RSAC), Dr. Bruce Walcott b.walcott@ieee.org, no later than this date. Please use the subject, IEEE R3 Paper Contest Entry in the header of the e-mail and give complete contact information for both the student and the student branch counselor.

March 15: Judging of written papers is to be completed by this date. Contestants whose papers are selected to be presented orally will be notified immediately thereafter by the host Counselor or the Regional Student Activities Chair acting for the host Counselor. In order to ensure prompt notification, please include the branch counselor's telephone number in the letter of transmittal.

Conference Time: Finalists selected must be at SoutheastCon to present their papers.

2. Eligibility

To be eligible to enter a paper in the competition, the author must be a paid-up student member of IEEE in Region 3 at the time that the entry is submitted. The student must also be an undergraduate the Spring term of the year the paper is presented. Multiple authors are permitted up to a limit of three, all of whom must be undergraduate students and IEEE student members.

Any questions regarding eligibility or deviation from prescribed procedures will be decided upon by the members of the judging team present at the competition.

3. Prizes

The Institute Life Member Fund provides funds to the Region for prizes as follows:
  • First Place - $850.00
  • Second Place - $500.00
  • Third Place - $250.00

    • In addition to the first, second, and third place prizes, the school represented by the Author of the first place paper will receive a plaque.

    4. Written Presentation

    The following is a list of the major parts of a suitable paper. It is intended only as a basic guide in establishing the format.
    1. Cover page (use the format described in Section 10). The cover page, which contains the author(s) name(s) and the Student Branch affiliation, will be removed before the paper is transmitted to the judges.
    2. Title page (names of persons or schools should not appear on this page - see Section 11).
    3. Abstract (not more than one page)
    4. Introduction
    5. Body of paper
    6. Conclusions and Recommendations
    7. Appendices
    8. References/Bibliography

    The paper should be typewritten, double-spaced, no smaller than 10 point font on one side of 8-1/2" x 11" paper. Legible photocopies are acceptable. The pages of the paper must be numbered consecutively. The Introduction, Body, Conclusions, Tables, and Diagrams together may not exceed 15 pages while these sections together with the Appendices may not exceed 20 pages. Judges will penalize those who exceed this length. Each copy of the paper submitted for judging must be securely fastened in a suitable folder.

    Contestants are strongly encouraged to bring additional copies for distribution at the time of the oral presentation. These additional copies need not be in folders.

    5. Oral Presentation

    The 10 to 12 highest scoring papers in the written judging will be selected by the RSAC for oral presentation.

    Each contestant will have 15 minutes for oral presentation and 5 minutes for a question and answer period. A timekeeper will indicate, by some suitable method, how a contestant's time is progressing and when each of his/her prescribed time periods is completed.

    The RSAC will use a random process to determine the order of oral presentation and will endeavor to inform the participating schools of their presentation order prior to the conference.

    6. Judges

    The basis for the judging is indicated in the following sections. The winners shall be determined from the sum of written and oral scores.

    7. Written

    There will be three judges of the written papers (See Section 12.2). They will judge each of the papers independently and send their scores to the RSAC.

    8. Oral

    Three judges of the oral presentations (See Section 12.3) and a timekeeper will be selected by the Host Counselor.

    9. Scoring


    WRITTEN PRESENTATION (maximum possible score: 56 points)

    Originality

    1. Originality should be interpreted to give credit for results, investigative procedure, and conclusions that are primarily those of the author. A general guidance from the literature is acceptable.

    2. Originality can be evidenced by an unusual, imaginative, or concise treatment of the subject. Both (1) and (2) should be present to a reasonable degree to receive full credit.

    12 points

    Analytical Treatment

    The fundamental nature of the subject should be clearly revealed, and the component parts of the topic should be carefully related to yield a unified analysis.


    16 points

    Interest

    The paper should be of general engineering or computer science interest and a sound engineering reason for considering the subject should be present.


    12 points

    Mode of Expression

    1. Logical organization of material and clarity of presentation

    4 points

    2. Concise and coherent expression of thoughts

    4 points

    3. Effective and judicial use of electrical theory

    4 points

    4. Adequate introduction and closure. The introduction should properly orient the reader for the main body of the material. The closure should include a summary of the writer's contributions, forecast, or conclusions.

    4 points

    ORAL PRESENTATION (maximum possible score: 44 points)

    Speaking Techniques

    The contestant should be clear and easy to understand.


    12 points

    Style

    Presentation of material should follow a logical course and should stimulate the thinking of the audience.


    12 points

    Introduction and Conclusion

    Presentation should begin with a proper introduction. Background of the problem should be made clear before proceeding to the main body of the presentation. Conclusions should be briefly summarized.


    5 points

    Technical Presentation

    The speaker should exhibit a clear understanding of the topic, of the important related literature, and of the associated electrical theory. The presentation should be technically sound, and the fundamental nature of the subject should be clearly described.


    10 points

    Discussion

    The speaker should display a reasonable knowledge of the subject by answering the questions adequately.


    5 points

    10. Cover Page

    Name and Mailing Address of School

     

     

    TITLE OF PAPER

     

     

    Student's Name

     

     

    Student IEEE Membership Number

     

     

    Submitted for consideration in

     

    Region 3, IEEE

     

    Student Paper Competition

     

     

    Endorsement of Branch Counselor

     

    The author(s) of this paper are student members of this IEEE student branch and will
    still be undergraduate students at the time of SoutheastCon. This paper is the only
    entry of our student branch.

       Signature: _____________________________________________________

       Name (Typed): __________________________________________________

       Telephone Number of Counselor: (____) __________________________

    11. Title Page

     

    TITLE OF PAPER

     

    ABSTRACT

     

     

    Give the abstract . . .

    Start paper . . .

    [NOTE:Be sure that this page DOES NOT have the student's name or school affiliation. Also, be sure that the COVER page with names and affiliations can be removed from the paper prior to sending to the judges.]

    12. General

    The following general comments are part of the procedures for running the paper contest.
      12.1 Host Counselor or RSAC
        The RSAC is available to assist the Host Counselor in managing the paper contest. The Host Counselor and the RSAC should decide in the Fall prior to the conference who is to receive the results from the written judges and notify the selected finalists. The Host Counselor is always responsible for deciding what number of papers (10-12) are to be presented.

      12.2 Judges - Written Presentation

        The judges of the written presentations are usually Branch Counselors at schools that did not submit entries to the paper contest. Usually, the RSAC picks these judges and manages the written portion of the paper contest, notifying the host Branch Counselor and the participants of the results. All papers should be judged by all of the judges.

      12.3 Judges - Oral Presentation

        The judges of the oral presentations should be working electrical engineers from the local vicinity of the Student Conference. Usually, the host Branch Counselor picks these judges and makes arrangements for their participation. The same set of oral presentation judges should judge all presentations.

      12.4 Alternate Paper Sessions

        The host branch may wish to have alternate student paper sessions and publish the contest papers and the additional papers. Although participation in an alternate session is encouraged, these students will not be eligible for the monetary awards. Care should be taken not to detract from the Region 3 Paper Contest. Scheduling additional student paper presentations in parallel with the Student Paper Contest has been specifically denied by the RSAC.

      12.5 Paper Presenter Responsibilities

        The host Paper Contest Coordinator (and the Branch Counselor) should strongly encourage the paper presenters to arrive at the presentation location 30 minutes prior to the start of the program and to stay while all competing authors make their presentations.

      12.6 Copies of Student Papers

        The host branch is responsible for printing several copies of the papers presented by the students. As a minimum, each student author should receive a bound copy of all of the papers, including a Table of Contents.