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UCalgary Images of Research Competition

_{(Photo credit: Afrin Islam, 2023-24 IoR competition)}

Use an image to tell a story to showcase your research in the annual UCalgary Images of Research Competition. The Faculty of Graduate Studies invites UCalgary graduate students to explore new ways of thinking about research, its value, and how it can be communicated to a broad, non-specialist audience.

Images of Research is also a great opportunity to win cash prizes and have your research shared with a wide community!

To participate, graduate students are challenged to capture an image that showcases their research and write a general abstract to complement the image as well as describe their research and its impact.

Entries are judged on composition, quality, how effectively the images connect with research, and on the quality of the written abstracts. To help you with your entry, you will be added to a D2L course with access to workshops, feedback sessions and written resources.

Madeline Springle, PhD student, 2023-24 Images of Research and 2024 SSHRC winner

"These competitions are key for developing the vital skill of effectively communicating complex ideas to a broad audience, which I think is one of the most important aspects of conducting research! They offer the chance to refine your presentation abilities, think creatively about sharing your research and widen your network."

Learn more about Madeline's journey

Eligibility and Submission Criteria

The contest is open to all UCalgary graduate students in both thesis- and course-based programs. After you register, you will be added (within a few days) to a D2L module that includes all information about the competition, along with resources for success. Images and abstracts will only be accepted through the D2L course. Graduate students can submit a maximum of one image per competition year.

Image submissions
- An original, unpublished image (please note: images such as computer-generated or electron microscopy images are accepted. Images of art such as paintings may be submitted but must be arranged with purpose and follow judging criteria.)
- Taken by the student submitting the image
- Digital, high-resolution images in JPEG format (3300 x 4200 pixels minimum and 300 dpi)
- Printable as 11x14” prints (entries must be cropped to final size before submitting)
- File size smaller than 12 MB
Required information

In addition to your image submission, you are required to provide the following information through the D2L course:
- Your name
- Email
- Degree (Masters/PhD)
- Department
- Program
- Supervisor’s name
- Title (maximum 15 words, using jargon-free language). You may have a short primary title, with a subtitle, but this must fit within a maximum of 20 words.
- A non-specialist abstract (jargon-free and public-friendly language) which describes your image and how it relates to your thesis research or course of study (maximum 1,200 characters including spaces).

More information

Learning Opportunities, Feedback Sessions and Option for Resubmission

Registrants are invited to attend one of the ‘Crafting Short General Abstracts’ workshops (Dec. 5) to receive tips and feedback on their ideas and drafts.

Registrants will also receive written feedback on their submissions by Dec. 16, 2024. Based on their learnings, registrants will have an opportunity to improve their image and resubmit, prior to the images being sent to the judges. You may resubmit at any time, but the final deadline is Jan. 6, 2025, at 11:59 p.m.

Registrants who opt to not resubmit, or who submit their changes after the resubmission deadline, will have their original image and abstracts sent to the judges.

Judging Criteria

Once sent to the judges, images will be evaluated on the following:

Image Quality
Composition
Creativity
Abstracts/Link between image and research

Competition Awards

All images will be judged with $2050 of award money available.

Categories Available
- Research based software/system
- Photographic/analog/Illustration
- Digital generated
- Artificial Intelligence generated
Award Winners

As decided by a panel of judges:
- Top winner will receive $750
- Honorable mention attached to above categories will receive $300
- People’s choice will receive $100
These awards will be distributed through the FGS Scholarship office.

Waiver

While you have copyright to use your image for your own research, the submission of an image and abstracts in the contest permits FGS the right to display your image and abstracts in other media (e.g. print, website, social media) and for educational purposes (e.g. to present as examples within workshops).

Citation for AI generated Imagery

Participants are required to follow current citation guidelines as outlined by Library and Cultural Resources. All AI must be cited as “personal communications” and formatted correctly according to discipline specific citation styles (i.e., APA, Chicago Style, Vancouver, MLA, IEEE).

For more information about citation of AI generated imagery please visit UCalgary Research Guides or contact the UCalgary copyright office: copyright@ucalgary.ca