Overhead of busy Student Research Poster Competition in progress

April 27, 2024

We’re expanding our signature Research Poster Competition by adding a new expo component celebrating the many other types of experiential learning students enjoy at our college. Two fantastic activities in one.


Research Poster Competition

This is the 16th year for our signature competition event!

Graduate and undergraduate students will present their research posters to industry judges and receive valuable feedback.

Awards will be given for first-third place in the following categories:

  • Undergraduate research
  • Graduate research
  • PLUS $1,000 Michael Krauski Memorial Award. Learn more.

+ NEW! Experiential Learning Expo

Meet our students at this super-networking session. Students will present posters to share their hands-on learning experiences, with no competition, just opportunities to connect and engage.

Categories include:

  • Internships and co-ops
  • Senior design
  • Student organizations
  • Study abroad
View 2023 Research Poster Competition Highlights
(NOTE: there is no second round in 2024)

Deadlines

  • Registration opens: February 5, 2024
  • Posters due: April 7, 2024, midnight
  • Judge registration closes: April 7, 2024, midnight

Agenda

7:30-9 amContinental Breakfast
7:30-8:15 amStudent Check-In
8-8:45 amJudge Check-In
9-9:30 amWelcome and Judge Orientation
9:30-10:30 amResearch Poster Competition Judging
10:30-11:30 amExperiential Learning Expo
11:30 am-12:30 pmLunch/Research Poster Competition Awards

Students, this is your opportunity to present your work in poster form to a professional audience of engineers and computer scientists, as researchers do at conferences. Bring your resume; you’ll have plenty of opportunities to network with industry members.

Experiential Learning Expo participants: In addition to your poster, we welcome you to bring your model, project, student org vehicle or any other artifact that shows your work (and Milwaukee Engineer enthusiasm!).

Every student who presents a research OR Expo poster receives a premium North Face vest.

To participate:

  • You must be a student of the College of Engineering & Applied Science.
  • Each student must register and create a unique poster in one of the following categories:
    • Undergraduate research (judged)
    • Graduate research (judged)
    • Co-op or internship (expo)
    • Senior design project (expo)
    • Student organization poster (expo)
    • CEAS study abroad (expo)
  • Research included in the RESEARCH poster must be extracurricular and not related to a required course.
  • Each poster must be submitted and presented by one student. If a group worked on a project, each student can enter their own separate poster that addresses a unique attribute of the research or their part of the project.
  • No duplicate work accepted. If a poster was submitted for this competition in the past, it can’t be submitted a second time unless there is substantial advancement to the research and findings.
  • The following items must be submitted by the registration deadline:
Poster Requirements

Simple and easily understood. We recommend your poster include two or three key findings with complex statistical results translated into simplified charts, tables and bulleted text to convey your findings as part of a focused and understandable story.

Required template and tips: Please download a copy of the appropriate template and “Save as” your own poster on your device:

More tips for poster creation can be found here. You will need to upload a PDF file of your poster to register for the competition. PowerPoint has a native PPTX-to-PDF converter – just select “Save As,” then choose “PDF” as output format.

Conference poster workshops: If you are new to poster design, or would like some tips and recommendations, the Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows office holds complimentary conference poster workshops for any interested UWM student on these dates:

  • 02/22/24, 11 am-12 pm
  • 02/23/24, 11:30 am-12:30 pm in EMS E130 (Engineers Week)
  • 03/01/24, 11 am-12 pm
  • 03/15/24, 11:30 am-12:30 pm
  • 03/29/24, 11:30 am-12:30 pm
  • 04/02/24, 12-4 pm – drop-in session

File naming convention: Please do not use spaces, dashes, underscores, etc. in the names of the files and keep file name length to a minimum. To make file names more legible, please capitalize only the first letter of each word in the file name. For example, if you have a file named my_poster-competition.pdf, you can rename the file to MyPosterCompetition.pdf.

Intellectual property (IP), in general terms, is anything useful and tangible that results from a person’s creative efforts, including artistic ingeniousness or inventiveness. Patents and copyrights are legal mechanisms to protect IP. If you have developed something new it may have value and be useful to others.

In general, you should not communicate details of your inventive work that would enable someone to copy it. Oral and/or written communication to anyone outside your lab is considered public disclosure. This hinders your opportunities to protect your idea. You should discuss potential IP with your research advisor before presenting your poster.

If you think that you have developed intellectual property that could be patented or copyrighted, you are encouraged to file an invention or copyright disclosure in our Inventor’s Portal through UW-Milwaukee Research Foundation (UWMRF). We can help guide and evaluate your invention. Please contact us at team@uwmrf.org if you have questions.

Michael Krauski Memorial Award submission (optional)

Students participating in the Research Poster Competition (not Expo) also have the option to participate in the $1,000 Michael Krauski Memorial Award.

You must participate in the Research Poster Competition to enter the Michael Krauski Memorial Award category.

View details.

Judges from Industry Needed.

If you’d like to support our students, consider being a volunteer judge. A few hours of your time will have a big impact.

No previous judging experience is needed. You might even meet your next employee or inventor.

Details:

  • Your Day: Start with a continental breakfast, then judge a round of student research posters, network with students at the experiential learning expo, and wrap it up with a complimentary lunch/awards ceremony. And our gratitude!
  • Judging: You will be provided with a list of the student research poster titles prior to the event in case you’d like to review them early. When you check in you’ll choose four undergraduate or graduate students to meet with in one-on-one fashion.
  • Experiential Learning Expo: We ask that you visit and provide feedback to at least four students at the experiential learning expo. They’ll bring their resumes; that’s why we’re calling it super-networking.
Research (up to 50 points)
  • Research is original and innovative
  • Research has practical implications/research is relevant to current industry needs
  • Research methodology is sound (e.g., research process, data quantity is sufficient)
  • The result/conclusion of the research is clear and easy to understand
Communication (up to 30 points)
  • Student clearly explains project, including initial problem or question, the process, and the result/conclusion
  • Student is able to explain the research in a way that is easily understood by those outside the subject area or without the specific technical expertise
  • Student speaks at an appropriate volume and pace
  • Student demonstrates enthusiasm for the topic
Appearance & Presentation (up to 20 points)
  • Research is displayed in a logical way
  • Data is displayed in such a way that lends itself to clear interpretation
  • Pictures, digital images and graphs are of a high quality

Congratulations to the winners (and their faculty advisors) of the Student Research Poster Competition. The work of every student who entered in the competition is worthy of acknowledgment. Their research addresses many of society’s pressing challenges and illustrates the curiosity, passion and abilities of students who attend one of the nation’s top research universities.

Thank you also to the judges and the many sponsors who helped make this event possible.

2023

Graduate
First Place: Abul Borkot Md Rafiqul Hasan, ME (Research Advisor: Krishna Pillai)
Second Place: Rawan Aqel, CEE (Research Advisor: Rani Elhajjar)
Third Place: Mohsen Sabbaghi, EE (Research Advisor: George Hanson)

Undergraduate
First Place: Sonia Bendre, EE (Research Advisor: Rob Cuzner)
Second Place: Weiling Xia, MS (Research Advisor: Xiaoli Ma)
Third Place: Ian Smith, ME (Faculty advisor: William Musinski)

Mike Krauski Memorial Award
Walaa Saadeh, ME (Research Advisor: Ryoichi Amano)

2022

Graduate
First Place: Dantong Qiu (Faculty advisor: Deyang Qu)
Second Place: Farah Nazifa Nourin (Faculty advisor: Ryoichi Amano)
Third Place: Xiaoyu Liu (Faculty advisor: Susan McRoy)
Student Choice: Mohamed Abousabae (Advisor: Ryoichi Amano)

Undergraduate
First Place: Morgan Connaughton (Faculty advisor: Mahsa Dabagh)
Second Place: Diego Avila (Faculty advisor: Matthew Petering)
Third Place: Jameson Nedza (Faculty advisor: Xuefeng Bao)
Student Choice: Rosalba Huerta (Faculty advisor: Konstantin Sobolev)

Mike Krauski Memorial Award
Mohamed Abousabae (Advisor: Ryoichi Amano)

2021

Graduate
First Place:  Soudeh Mostaghimi (Faculty advisor: Mahsa Ranji)
Second Place:  Syeda Mahmuda Noor (Faculty advisor: Qian Liao)
Third Place: Abdel Rahman Salem (Faculty advisor: Ryo Amano)

Undergraduate
First Place:  Hannah Ullberg (Faculty advisor: Pradeep Rohatgi)
Second Place:  Marina Slawinski (Faculty advisor: Ionel Popa)
Third Place (Tie): Morgan Connaughton (Faculty advisor: Mahsa Dabagh) and Corey Huffman (Faculty advisor: Mohammad Rahman)

Senior Design Project
First Place:  Evan Karsten, Kaitlyn Jankowski, Jarod Schneider & Riley Smeaton (West Drexel Avenue Redesign)
Second Place:  Zachary Breider, Ismael Coello, Davan Siegfried & Hannah Ullberg (Time is Money: Reducing the Heat-Treatment Time for Lamellar Pearlite Steel)
Third Place: Reed Blake, Abdulrahman Dunquwah, Ryan Harris, Anna Schenk & Noah Streich (I94 Offramp Improvement at Miller Park at General Mitchell Boulevard)

Mike Krauski Memorial Award
Soudeh Mostaghimi

2020

Graduate

Undergraduate

Senior Design Project Awards

  • First Place: Kaitlyn Bruckner, Annalyse Heinrich, Adan Hernandez, Guillermo Martinez, William Sterns
  • Second Place: Danielle Hawi, Daniel Jadrich, Dora Richardson, Elliott Szabo
  • Third Place: Saleh Almunyif, Benjamin Krolcyzk, Ryan McGonagle, Siew Choong Yip
  • Honorable Mention: Tyler Jankowski, Perry Spott
  • Honorable Mention: Ian Buck, Sam Lear, Kalila Master, Skyler Sandlin, Jake Vetsch
  • Honorable Mention: Evan Hicks, Jordan Jadin, Luke Kraus, Douglas Machkovech, Charles Quentin
2019

Graduate

  • First Place:Tianyao Ding
  • Second Place: Tarek ElGammal
  • Third Place: Mohammad Rizwen Ur Rahman
  • Honorable Mention: Hadi Akbarihaghighat
  • Honorable Mention: Ghazal Azarfar
  • Honorable Mention: Lizeth Ortiz Reyes
  • Students’ Choice: Farnaz Hajiahmadifoomani

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Anthony Pierson
  • Second Place: Andrew Thompson
  • Third Place: Violet Ahnen
  • Honorable Mention: Catelyn Scholl
  • Honorable Mention: Hella Willis
  • Honorable Mention: Patrick Zastrow
  • Student’s Choice: Miguel Jaimes

Departmental Awards

Graduate

  • Biomedical Engineering: Justin Womack
  • Civil & Enviromental Engineering: Shamsi Mosharraf Trisha
  • Computer Science: Namita Singh
  • Electrical Engineering: Farnaz Hajiahmadifoomani
  • Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering: Shabnam Lashkari
  • Materials Science & Engineering: Murtatha Jamel
  • Mechanical Engineering: Jingyu Si

Undergraduate

  • Biomedical Engineering: Nicole Vigon
  • Civil & Enviromental Engineering: Rosalba Huerta
  • Computer Science: Nathan Kohls
  • Electrical Engineering: Nathan Swanson
  • Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering: Dora Richardson
  • Materials Science & Engineering: Olivia Rush
  • Mechanical Engineering: Anthony Pierson

Mike Krauski Memorial Award: Anthony Pierson

2018

Graduate

  •  First Place: Marco Lo Ricco
  •  Second Place: Reed Heintzkill
  • Third Place: Mohsen Manjili
  • Honorable Mention: Shabnam Lashkari
  • Honorable Mention: Reihaneh Rostami
  • Honorable Mention: Saeed Yazdani
  • Students’ Choice: Yun Yuan

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Nisrit Pandey
  • Second Place: Hella Willis
  • Third Place: Joshua Myszewski
  • Honorable Mention: Jeff Becker
  • Honorable Mention: Danielle O’Hagan
  • Honorable Mention: Michael Stefik
  • Students’ Choice: Nisrit Pandey

Mike Krauski Memorial Award: Janeé Pederson

2017

Graduate

  • First Place: Ali Bakhshinejad
  • Second Place: Yaojun Wang
  • Third Place: Soheil Hosseini
  • Honorable Mention: Axam Elyasigorji
  • Honorable Mention: Mohammad Rashidi
  • Honorable Mention: Yihan Xu
  • Students’ Choice: Sourav Das

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Ameralys Correa
  • Second Place: Emily Gerstein
  • Third Place: John Mortimer
  • Honorable Mention: Nisrit Pandey
  • Honorable Mention: Christopher Spiewak
  • Honorable Mention: Andrew Thompson
  • Students’ Choice: Anne Barlas

Mike Krauski Memorial Award : Andrew Thompson

2016

Graduate

  • First Place: Ali Bakhshinejad
  • Second Place: Rex Chin-Hao Chen
  • Third Place: Fereshteh Bashiri
  • Honorable Mention: Nazanin Maani
  • Honorable Mention: Mandana Sheikhzad Saravani
  • Honorable Mention: Mahya Sheikhzadeh
  • Students’ Choice: Vikas Singh

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Emily Gerstein
  • Second Place: Aleksey Yermakov
  • Third Place: Anne Barlas
  • Honorable Mention: Robert Hansen
  • Honorable Mention: Trishika Santebennur
  • Honorable Mention: Christopher Spiewak
  • Students’ Choice: Gonzalo Couto-Lain
2015

Graduate

  • First Place: Erika Pliner
  • Second Place: Dongqing Pan
  • Third Place: Alexa Hernandez Principe
  • Honorable Mention: Junling Xie
  • Honorable Mention: Ahmad Pahlavan Tafti
  • Honorable Mention: Seyedmohammad Shams
  • Students’ Choice: Jingyi Zhang

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Jud Riggins
  • Second Place: Aleksey Yermakov
  • Third Place: Jesse Nechodom
  • Honorable Mention: Quinn Porter
  • Honorable Mention: Luke Steinbach
  • Honorable Mention: Steven Acker
  • Students’ Choice: Jud Riggins
2014

Graduate

  • First Place: Whitney Linz
  • Second Place: Qianyi Zhang
  • Third Place: Cunyu Zhao
  • Honorable Mention: Blake Johnson
  • Honorable Mention: Salman Karbasi
  • Honorable Mention: Junling Xie
  • Students’ Choice: Guihua Zhou

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Ryan Frazier
  • Second Place: Alexa Hernandez
  • Third Place: Aleksey Yermakov
  • Honorable Mention: Brady Moe
  • Honorable Mention: Matthew Cowap
  • Honorable Mention: Dung Pham
  • Students’ Choice: Brady Moe
2013

Graduate

  • First Place: Scott Muzenski
  • Second Place: Leah Enders
  • Third Place: Ahmadreza Baghaie

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Ryan Frazier
  • Second Place: Patrick Stepanski
  • Third Place: Alexa Hernandez

2012

Graduate

  • First Place: Carlton Reeves
  • Second Place: Zheng Ge & Patrick Kelly
  • Third Place: Reyhaneh Sepehr & Kevin Staniszewskie

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Elise Uphoff
  • Second Place: Patrick Stepanski
  • Third Place: Arielle Walker
2011

Graduate

  • First Place: Huilei Zhao & Qiang Zhai
  • Second Place: Justin Effinger & Joe Komorowski
  • Third Place: Rossana Rivero Guidez, Adrianna Eason, Alex Cain, Morteza Janbaz, Brandon Patterson and Nihar Talati

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Paul Sisneros
  • Second Place: Vitostix And Vijolom III, Guatemala
  • Third Place: Joe Balloni
2010

Graduate

  • First Place: Tan Liu
  • Second Place: Menaka Abeygunawardena
  • Third Place: Andrew Dressel

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Andrew Hastert & Hector Fuentes
  • Second Place: Joseph Pfannes
  • Third Place: EWB@UWM
2009

Graduate

  • First Place: Omar Martinez & Andrew Ruzek
  • Second Place: Marcia Silva & Sandra McLellan
  • Third Place: Michael Brzeski

Undergraduate

  • First Place: Julie Cease
  • Second Place: Quejchip, Guatemala
  • Third Place: Taran Bedi & Tony Darelius, Sunderam Krishnan

Sponsor our event

Contact Michele Weinschrott, Director of Deveopment; weinschr@uwm.edu

Other questions?

Contact Michelle Boehm at boehmmm@uwm.edu

All students who present receive a premium North Face vest

Samples are available in the 3rd floor Academic Advising Office E386.

2024 Sponsors To Date

Gold

Eaton logo

Bronze

Generac logo
GRAEF Foundation logo