Communication of Undergraduate Experiences (CUE)

Need Help?

Resident and online students are eligible to participate. Students may work either in person or by Zoom with Assistant Teaching Professor/Giles Writer-in-Residence, Kevin Haworth (krh5564@psu.edu) in the Ryan Family Student Center for help with project development and review. Click here to make an appointment.

Category Guidelines

Lightning Talks

A lightning talk is a brief presentation designed to engage an audience, highlight essential information, and allow people to share ideas in an enjoyable way. Lightning talks are a great way to succinctly present a project or developing research.

For CUE, participants may have up to 12 slides and present for 3 minutes or less. They can be about your research interests, internship, or any relevant professional development or academic experience.

Please follow the guidelines below.

Guidelines

Include your first and last name, Penn State email address, and the title of your talk on your first slide;
You may choose to have up to 11 more (for a total of 12) slides;
You have 3 minutes (180 seconds) total to say what you need to say. You'll need to practice timing the slides to your words.
No reading from a script.
Emphasize graphics (e.g., images, charts, tables) over text on your slides;
Graphics may be literal or figurative representations of the information;
Be concise—emphasize aspects most relevant to your educated, general audience;
Honor copyrights and cite your sources. If you incorporate elements that someone else created, whether it’s images, music, videos, or research, give credit to the creator. You can find links to images in the public domain and creative commons and free audio sound effects and music.
Lighting talks feature individual presenters only. No group presentations.
A Zoom demo video of your lightning talk serves as your Lightning Talk proposal. The CUE Selection Committee will review your demo video and notify you via email if you are selected to present your lightning talk live at the CUE event.
If you are selected, you will need to present your talk and be available for questions during the live event.
Entry forms and file uploads must be completed and submitted online by the deadline.

Steps to submit a lightning talk.

Create a Zoom demo video - Use your PSU Zoom account and the video camera and microphone on a computer (laptop recommended) to produce your Zoom demo video.
- Sign into your PSU Zoom account - To sign into your account, go to https://psu.zoom.us
- Host a meeting - To create a video recording of your slides and your voice, host a meeting where you are the only participant. Screen share your PowerPoint slides and record the meeting. Your recordings will be stored in psu.zoom.us/recording. Play it back to ensure the audio is clear. Upload this file with your lightning talk registration form.
- Not sure how to use Zoom? - To learn more about how to share your slides to the screen and how to record, visit https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206618765-Zoom-Video-Tutorial or contact Penn State Media Commons.
Entry forms and file uploads of your Lightning Talk Demo Video must be completed and submitted by the indicated deadline.
For more tips, see Science Communication in Earth and Mineral Sciences: Lightning Talks

Posters

Communicating your research is vital to the scientific community and to your career. Posters are often used at conferences to develop opportunities for graduate school or employment. Developing a poster for CUE will help you practice summarizing information concisely, accurately, and attractively. You will gain poise and mental agility as you explain and defend your work. You will also be better prepared to participate in the University-wide Undergraduate Exhibition and develop a more complete EMSAGE application.

Research, experiential learning, creative activity, or educational experiences relevant to the study of Earth and Mineral Sciences may serve as the subject of a poster entered for exhibition. This exhibition is not only for students working in a lab collecting data. Capstone projects, internships, study abroad, study away, embedded travel courses, community-based research, service learning, student clubs, and other educational experiences are all potentially good topics.

Guidelines

Both individuals and EMS undergraduate teams can create posters for CUE.
You will need to list the authors and the faculty/supervisor under whose guidance the project was completed (you will need the name and PSU email of any co-authors as well as the name, email and affiliation of your project advisers). Make sure you have this information at hand before beginning the submission process.
The lead author is the person whose name appears first on the poster. You may submit the poster for your team even if you are not the lead author.
At the time of your submission, you will need to upload a complete and final pdf of your poster. This will be your official submission and will be used by the CUE judges when considering awards. Plan to submit only once!
Posters should be standard, conference size (36" X 48").
Abstracts are limited to 50 words and should contain a brief description of your poster. If the abstract exceeds the word count, it will be cut.
Proofread and edit the abstract carefully as what you write will be copied and included in the online materials for the event.
The CUE Selection Committee will review your submission and notify you via email if you are selected to present your poster at the CUE event.
If you are selected, you will need to present your poster and be available for questions during the live event. It is preferable to have all your team members present, but it is not required; however, at least one member needs to be available to present.
Entry forms and file uploads must be completed and submitted online by the deadline.

Award Categories and Criteria

CUE offers several awards:

Best in Original Research 1st Prize ($400) and 2nd Prize ($200)
Best in Experiential Learning 1st Prize ($400) and 2nd Prize ($200)
Best in First-Year Seminar Project ($200)
Library Research Prize ($100)
EMS Sustainability Council Award ($100)

Students may enter a submission for both the Original Research and the Experiential Learning prizes, but these must each be in a separate format (i.e., a poster submission on original research, and a lightning talk on experiential learning, or vice versa).

Submissions in the Experiential Learning category should address one or more of the five EMSAGE engagement categories: Professional Development, Multicultural Awareness, Civic Responsibility, Systems Thinking, or Ethical Reasoning. Please connect your experiential learning activity to one of these categories in your poster or talk.

To be eligible for the Library Research Award ($100), students should prepare the following information, which can be shared in written form, oral form, recorded, illustration (like a zine) and shared by the day of the presentation.

Describe your research process, strategies, and source selection
Explain your research journey, and what resources you used.
What knowledge did you have prior to starting your research?
How did you identify any gaps or themes in the literature?

The content can be submitted in person or by email to EMSL@psu.edu.

All participants are encouraged to meet in advance with a librarian virtually or in-person by contacting EMSL@psu.edu for research support. The full judging criteria for the Library Research Award can also be accessed by emailing EMSL@psu.edu.

To be eligible for the EMS Sustainability Council Award, students' submissions must engage with one or more United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)and include in their conclusion the potential for sustainable changes stemming from their research or broader sustainability awareness/appreciation. Presentations that directly address the environmental footprint of the College of EMS and/or feature actions will be prioritized. On the day of CUE, students should be prepared to discuss what the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are, which ones are touched upon in their submission, and what lessons were learned about the future of sustainability within their field.

Submit your CUE Entry

Before submitting your work, please read the following information.

You are permitted to submit in more than one category, such as both a lightning talk and a poster. However, you may submit only one entry per category (e.g., only one poster—not two posters).
Upload all submissions under one registration. Have files for all categories you’ll be submitting ready before you initiate this registration process. You will not be able to register twice.
The CUE Selection Committee will notify you of your acceptance and category assignment(s). Students not selected to present at CUE will also be notified.

Deadlines

Deadline to submit to CUE is November 15, 2024.

If you have read the guidelines and are ready to submit, please complete the CUE submission form.
You must be logged into Microsoft Forms with your PSU email/login information in order to access the submission form.
If you are having trouble with the form, try switching your browser to Google Chrome.

Note: Please save the email that you will receive confirming your submission.

In This Section

Communication of Undergraduate Experiences (CUE)

Need Help?

Category Guidelines

Lightning Talks

Guidelines

Steps to submit a lightning talk.

Posters

Guidelines

Award Categories and Criteria

Submit your CUE Entry

Deadlines

View Showcases