Research Expo Judges

Judges Information

The Jacobs School of Engineering is recruiting industry partners, and engineering and computer science alumni to serve as graduate student poster judges at our 43rd annual Research Expo on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. If you'd like to serve as a judge, please sign up here. 

Judges' Role 

Judges play an important role in Research Expo, and we invite you to share an exciting day with us. Please review the following information to learn about this commitment.

1. Judges' criteria:
   • hold a PhD in engineering (or a related field) OR
   • hold a bachelor's degree in engineering/computer science AND
   • have 10+ years related industry experience
2. Each judge is assigned 4-6 student posters to review.
3. Prior to Research Expo, you will receive an email with your student poster assignments, and links to their research abstract. We ask that judges preview their assigned abstracts online in advance to be prepared for the Q&A session.
4. On the day of Research Expo, judges visit each of their assigned posters and interact with the student presenter during the poster Q&A session.

Judging Process

Research Expo judges evaluate student poster presentations based on four major criteria related to each student's ability to clearly communicate the significance of their work:

• Student's oral presentation was well-prepared, concise, and provided a good synopsis of the significance of the research, results and possible future applications
• Student's response to questions shows insightful knowledge and contributed to my understanding of the research
• The poster is well organized and visually appealing
• The poster communicates the significance and relevance of the results

Six department award winners ($750 prize), one overall Outstanding Poster Award winner ($1,500 prize), and a Transdisciplinary Collaboration Award winner ($1,000 prize) will be selected based on your results. 

Your Impact

• Students have reported that their interactions with poster judges changes the way they think about their projects.
• You have the opportunity to provide new and helpful perspectives on their research.
• You provide graduate students with valuable practice at communicating their work to technical, non-specialists.

Judge's Schedule

After judging assignments conclude, we encourage judges to stay and enjoy the rest of the Research Expo events, including hearing from distinguished faculty in lightning talks, and networking with students, alumni, faculty, industry partners and campus leaders during the awards reception:

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

More specifics on parking, directions, and location will be provided in advance of the event. More detailed instructions will be included in reminder emails to attendees.

Interested in serving as a Research Expo judge? Please sign up here.

Questions?

Contact researchexpo@ucsd.edu.