Posters
The posters described here are put on display during the EE Capstone Design Presentations and Demonstrations. A good poster should be visually appealing, interesting, and convey the the project's purpose and highlights of the design. The appropriate use of interesting graphics will help a lot with these objectives. The target audience of the poster is your peers, although it should hold some interesting information for the general public.

The contents of a poster is typically derived from presentation slides and/or reports covering the same material. As with any submission, please cite sources of information according to the format outlined in the course syllabus.

Poster Production

Create your slide using this Microsoft PowerPoint template: EE401_2010_11_Poster_Template.pptx. If you choose to produce the poster using another program, please adhere to the format demonstrated in this single-slide file. (Your instructor has had pleasing results using Inkscape, a free SVG editor.)

Posters can be produced using AICT's facilities. A description of AICT's resources and how to use them is available at http://helpdesk.ualberta.ca/printing/index.html. This site provides step-by-step help regarding installation of the appropriate printer driver necessary to create the output file, and other key things to be aware of when creating posters. Large Format Printing with PowerPoint 2007 for Windows is provided by AICT as a quick reference. Please note that the template provided, above, already has sufficient margins included.

The department is willing to pay for the production of one poster per group if and only if the the poster is manufactured according to the following specifications:
  • self-service printing is used;
  • next-day pickup (i.e. no same-day 'rush' service) is used;
  • the 42" wide plain (matte) paper printer is used (at $7.50 per linear foot); and
  • the poster size is 31"x21" (a landscape mode-type layout)
Deviation from any of these specifications will require that your group pay for the full production costs of the poster. Additionally, if you need to re-print the poster for whatever reason, the cost of re-printing is to be looked after by you or your group. Rigorous quality-control according to AICT's protocol is encouraged to avoid this situation.

Please ensure you take the speed of service into account in order to provide a timely submission for the course.

Grading

In respect to evaluation of this item, the following rubric will be used: Poster Evaluation Rubric. Please ensure that you review this rubric prior to submission of the poster. Time permitting, posters will be evaluated by multiple graders on the day of the presentations.

Please crop the poster to the size specified, above, perhaps using AICT's trimmers. A 10% deduction will be applied to submissions that do not meet the size requirement.

Late submissions are penalized 50% per business day (or portion thereof) late. This penalty is more severe than normal due to the tight timeline of the course at the end of the term.

Submission

Two submissions are required: paper and electronic.

Submit the paper poster to your instructor at the start of class (12 noon) on the day indicated in the course timeline. Time permitting, the poster will be mounted on the bulletin boards the morning of the Final Presentations and Demonstrations by course instruction staff.

Submit an electronic version of the poster file (in .pdf format, possibly created from the postscript file submitted to AICT using a program like GhostView) by 4PM on the date noted in the course timeline via the EE Capstone Submission Facility.

Poster Session

On the day of the EE Capstone Design Presentations and Demonstrations, the scheduled breaks just prior to- and between the presentations are intended as 'poster sessions'. During these times (which includes the time allocated for lunch), please ensure that at least one group member is near your poster in order to discuss your project and answer questions.

Returned Posters

With only a few exceptions, the posters are yours to keep once the EE Capstone Design Presentations and Demonstrations day comes to an end. If you do not want to keep the poster, please consider gifting it to your client as thanks for their involvement. Additionally, the EE Capstone Design Lab will welcome posters and will post selected ones it receives in the lab.