Poster Preparation & Presentation Tips

Set up the problem: 

• Understand and clearly communicate the problem that you are trying to solve.
• Focus on WHY it is important vs. WHAT it is. 

Explain your solution: 

• Communicate the practical real-world application and how it would be used in real life.  
• Who or what is impacted? How?
• Always ask yourself “so what?” and lead with that mindset. 
• Include results (not just future work). 
• Make sure the conclusions are clear.

• Make sure what you are trying to convey is clear on the poster and easily understood.
• Your poster should be able to stand on its own, without you having to explain it. 
• Include introduction, objective, methodology and results. 
• Make sure your poster is organized so content flow is clear. 
• Your poster should be understandable to someone outside of your field of study. This is important: minimize technical jargon.
• 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.

• Use charts and images to tell your story, not to fill space.
• A picture is worth a thousand words only if it is helpful in telling your story. Ask yourself why you are using each chart or image.
• A poster should have visual design elements to simplify the information and allow for participants to engage with the poster from >6 feet.  
• Images and charts should be in color, clear and large enough for people to understand. 
• Think impact: small charts make the presentation hard to digest.  
• If using figures on poster, make sure they are described clearly, so they could stand on their own. 
• Make sure to include space between charts, images and copy on poster (so it’s not too crowded). 

• You are creating a poster so don’t make it read like a paper.
• Make sure these items are on the top of your poster:
  • Your name and department or major
  • Your faculty advisor
  • Poster title
  • College of Engineering & Applied Science logo
• Include introduction, objective, methodology and results. 
• Make sure initial problem and conclusions are clearly communicated. 
• Make sure to acknowledge sources and the people that helped you.
• IMPORTANT: Check for typos and errors in punctuation. Ask a friend to read it over or read it out loud.
• Don’t make (type) font size too small. 

All posters should measure 44″ wide x 36″ high.

We recommend using one of the following templates. Download a copy and “Save as” your own poster on your device:

• Study Abroad poster template
• Undergraduate Research poster template
• Graduate Research poster template
• Senior Design Project poster template
• Internship or Co-op poster template
• Student Organization Activity poster template

Please name your poster file with your own name and category (not the title of your poster). To make file names more legible, please capitalize only the first letter of each word in the file name. For example, FirstnameLastnameUGResearch.pdf.

As a reminder, these are the categories to choose from:

• CoopIntern
• GRAD Research
• UG Research
• Senior Design
• Study Abroad
• Student Org

Do not use spaces, dashes, underscores, etc. in the name of the file and keep file name length to a minimum.

• Make sure your file is the correct size (44″ wide x 36″ high) before you save it.
• 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.

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.

• Introduce yourself when you begin. 
• Make eye contact when you are explaining your presentation. 
• Demonstrate your expertise, understanding of, and passion for, the topic (many, many judges appreciated that students conveyed these characteristics when presenting, and complimented students on this).
• Show confidence during your presentation (or pretend to!).

• Consider asking about your audience’s knowledge on the subject first (to gauge their understanding of your topic).
• Modify explanations to the background of your audience. 
• Don’t use jargon. 
• Define acronyms. 
• Don’t block the view of your poster. 

• As with your poster, establish the problem and why the problem is important, before going straight to results. 
• Practice telling your presentation to someone else. Don’t forget to use your poster as a visual aid.
• Practice talking to people outside of your field of study to ensure you can communicate your work using terminology that is not industry or field-specific.