Poster and Lightning Talk Guidelines

Poster & Lightning Talk Guidelines

Proposals are allowed for either:

Poster Presentation only,
5 minute Lightning Talk only, or
5-minute Lightning Talk with supporting poster

Be sure to select only one of these options when submitting.

Posters

Posters are a way for attendees to present early results, gain feedback from conference attendees, find collaborators on a topic, and/or spark discussion among conference participants. The intent is for these posters is similar to lightning talks in that they provide a venue in support of new ideas and newcomers to the Data Science community. The poster can be up to 36×48 inches / 91*122 cm.

NOTE: If work being submitted has been accepted for publication, please share citation.

Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks are strictly-timed to 5-minute presentations intended to further expand the Data Science community and spark discussion among participants. The intent is for these talks to provide a venue in support of new ideas and newcomers to our community. Lightning Talks are a great way to get early feedback on a work in progress, to demo a new tool or technique, and to find potential collaborators at other units/institutions. Lightning Talk presenters may elect to present a poster in conjunction with their lightning talk to provide additional information to curious parties and help foster post-lightning talk discussion.

NOTE: If work being submitted has been accepted for publication, please share citation.

Here are some lightning talk tips:

Describe your problem and convince your audience right away as to why it’s important & what are the current gaps

What is your cool approach?

Demonstrate the effectiveness of your approach with one or two clear examples.

Conclude with why your work matters!

Preferably use more figures/flowcharts in place of full sentences and lots of text.

Submission Deadline for Posters and Lightning Talks

Submissions for consideration as lightning talks and posters should use the provided google form and are limited to a maximum of 250 words. Abstracts should be submitted no later than April 1st, midnight EST. Abstracts will be evaluated with respect to their relevance to the WiDS audience and on space availability in the conference program. Abstracts do not receive peer-review feedback. Accepted abstracts will be made available on the conference website prior to the event unless otherwise noted, but they will not be included in the conference proceedings.

Review Criteria

Lightning Talks and Posters submitted to WiDS East Lansing should aim to do at least one of the following:

Solicit feedback from the community regarding a Data Science project (including sharing project plans and/or initial results)
Describe a new Data Science project for which the author(s) are seeking collaborators
Share encouraging initial results from a Data Science project
Demonstrate a new tool or technique