The 11th Annual Materials and Optics Poster Competition
Clemson University OSA Student Chapter
This year the Clemson University OSA Student Chapter held a poster competition for undergraduate and graduate students for Clemson University and surrounding universities. The event was held on campus at the Madren Conference Center and co-sponsored by the Clemson University Student Chapter of Materials Research Society. This year we had 43 posters and 30 judges in attendance. Each poster was judged by three people who consisted of faculty of Clemson and other universities, staff members, members of industry, and national lab members. We also invited alumni of the College of Engineering and Science to come back and see what students are doing on campus. The event was well received and we had a large turnout from our alumni.
The poster competition featured students’ research from polymers, ceramics, inorganic materials, optics, photonics, synthetic chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, and biomaterials. It also brought together people from academia and industry which provided a great opportunity for students to network. The event was designed to give students three things: 1) an opportunity to showcase the work and present it in a relaxed environment to gain experience for future conferences 2) an opportunity for students that are not funded to attend conferences to present the research in a conference-like atmosphere and get advice and feedback 3) a networking event. This year's event also featured a keynote speech from Dr. John Marra, previously of the Savannah River National Lab, where he spoke about the development of nuclear power. In his talk, he spoke about the dangers but also the numerous advantages of utilizing nuclear power. He also reported on the nuclear disaster at Fukushima taking special care to report on how we are learning from the mechanical failures at Fukushima to try to prevent future disasters. The students responded very well to his presentation and it was very informative.
Every year, prizes are awarded to the top three graduate student posters and to the top two undergraduate posters. In addition to those awards, this year, we added two awards: an award for best poster from an outside university and an award for a poster that a guest from industry found extremely intriguing. All student winners were presented with cash prizes and certificates.
At the competition, the 100 years of OSA was showcased. We had 2 banners on display, flyers for guests, and a poster looking back at the last 10 years of the OSA sponsored poster competitions.
The event was very successful this year, and we are looking forward to next year's 12th Annual Materials and Optics poster competition.
