Call for posters: UK Sustainability announces research poster competition
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 4, 2024) — University of Kentucky graduate and undergraduate students are invited to submit an abstract and poster for the fourth annual sustainability research poster competition held in conjunction with the annual UK Sustainability Showcase on Oct. 23.
Posters must be related to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality and spur economic growth — all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
UK Sustainability and the Office of Undergraduate Research are partnering to offer an opportunity for students in all majors to submit their sustainability-focused research poster.
“The poster competition is important to the University of Kentucky because it provides a platform for a broad spectrum of students to display their work, which has the potential to create awareness and engagement within the community,” said Bridget Bolt, graduate student and research assistant in the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “It also encourages interdisciplinary collaboration by bringing together people from various academic backgrounds, fostering innovative conversations and ideas in support of a more sustainable world.”
Judges with relevant expertise will review all posters and winners will be selected for both undergraduate and graduate categories. Judging takes place without student presentations.
Students can present their posters during the showcase in the atrium of the Healthy Kentucky Research Building (HKRB) on Oct. 23. The submission deadline is Oct. 13.
First place ($250), second place ($150) and People’s Choice ($100) awards will be presented to winners during a special awards ceremony at 6:30 p.m. The winners of the UK Sustainability Challenge Grants will also be announced.
Posters will be judged according to the following criteria:
- Content (poster demonstrates clarity of topic, objective and background)
- Motivation for research and technical relevance to sustainability
- Methodology and approach to problem
- Quality of proposed research results/findings
- Conclusions are supported by information presented
- Poster presentation (display aesthetics and logical flow between sections)
- Understandability (poster is effective even without student explaining it)
- Overall rank versus other posters in each category
More information, including registration and submission guidelines, is available here.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.