Find answers to common questions that may arise during the effort to prepare and submit a poster and scientific visualization and data analytics showcases to the SC19 Conference. If your question is not addressed here, please contact us at posters@info.supercomputing.org.

FAQ’s are organized into the following sections:

General Questions

Formatting Specifications

Q. What are the formatting requirements for research posters, ACM SRC posters, and Doctoral Showcase thesis canvases?

A. Each poster/thesis canvas is assigned one display board that is four feet high and eight feet wide. The only format requirement is that your poster properly mounts on its display board. Your poster does not need to cover the entire display board; the poster size should be appropriate for your content.

Q. Is there a poster template for research posters, ACM SRC posters, and Doctoral Showcase thesis canvases?

A. You should produce a poster/thesis canvas that effectively and elegantly portrays its technical content. Poster styles, layouts, fonts, and content are left to the discretion of the author(s).

Q. Can I embed content in my poster?

A. Yes, you can embed additional multimedia elements using QR codes.

Q. What is considered appropriate embedded content?

A. The goal of embedded multimedia elements should be to enhance the presentation of research in the poster. Such elements may include a video narration of the poster by the author, links to results, movies, graphics, datasets, codes, etc. Note that extended versions of the poster or related publications will not be considered acceptable multimedia elements in this context.

Q. What is a QR code?

A. A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) providing a machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached. QR codes have become a popular way to access content. For example, a smartphone or tablet can be used as a QR code scanner, displaying the code and converting it to some useful form (such as a standard URL for a website, thereby obviating the need for a user to type it into a web browser).

Q. How do I generate a QR code?

A. There are many QR code-generating sites and apps, both paid and free, that you can use to generate and print your own QR codes.

Q. Where do I place the QR codes on my poster?

A. QR codes could be placed anywhere you want to link to external content on your poster; for example, to point to a video narration of the poster by the author, links to results, movies, graphics, datasets, codes, etc.

Q. I noticed QR codes next to every poster at the conference. Do I have to generate that QR code for my poster?

A. No, you do not have to generate those QR codes. We generate one QR code for every poster that points to your submitted content. This code is attached to the poster pedestal by the time you arrive at SC. Conference attendees can scan these QR codes and get all of your material easily.

Submissions and Review Process

Q. Should I submit the final version of my poster for review? Can I make changes after the review?

A. For the submission, the poster does not need to be finalized; you may update the poster after acceptance, but a representative draft of the poster must be submitted for review.

Q. Are posters peer-reviewed?

A. Yes, all research and ACM Student Research Competition posters and Doctoral Showcase thesis canvases are peer-reviewed by a committee of experts.

Q. Is my poster blind-reviewed?

A. Poster reviews are single-blind: reviewers will see author names, but authors will not see reviewer names.

Q. Can I change from one type of poster to another?

A. No. Authors are required to select the type of poster at the time of submission. Authors can select either Research Poster, ACM Student Research Competition Poster, Doctoral Showcase canvas, or Scientific Visualization movie.

Q. Is my poster archived? What is the process for archiving my poster?

A. Yes, all posters are archived and can be accessed after the conference on the SC19 website. Contact us for further details.

Mounting/Displaying at the Conference

Q. What are the options for mounting my poster to the display board?

A. Pushpins will be provided for affixing all poster materials to display boards. Mounting your poster on foam core is not recommended.

Q. When should I plan to mount and unmount my poster?

A. Posters must be mounted between 2pm and 5pm on Monday, and should remain mounted until 5pm on Thursday. This allows conference attendees to browse posters outside of the Posters sessions.

Q. Do posters have allocated space, or is space first-come-first-serve?

A. Each poster is given a designated space with a display board. Before the conference, we will send authors a poster directory that maps assigned display boards. The title of each poster will also be printed on its display board in the Posters area to help you locate your space.

Q. Can I print my poster on-site at the conference?

A. The conference does not provide any support for printing posters. Typically, authors print their posters ahead of the conference. The convention center’s business office may offer printing services. You can look for details at the convention center’s website.

Q. When do I need to be at my poster location to present it?

A. Poster presenters must be available at their posters to answer questions and discuss their work for the duration of the Posters Reception on Tuesday evening. In addition, each poster track has a separate presentation session for selected posters (Research Best Poster Candidates, ACM SRC Best Poster Candidates, Doctoral Showcase, Best Poster Candidates in Scientific Visualization).

ACM Student Research Competition Posters

Q. Should I be the only author of my ACM Student Research Competition poster?

A. An ACM Student Research Competition submission reflects student research: this work may part of a larger project, but the poster should only reflect the contributions of a single graduate student or up to two undergraduate students. For graduate student submissions, the final poster must list one student as the only author; for undergraduate student submissions, the final poster must list up to two undergraduate students as the first (and second) author(s).

Students are allowed to list one or more official graduate or undergraduate advisors on their poster. Each advisor must be clearly marked by putting “(advisor)” after the advisor’s name. For example, if Alex Abel is advised by Bruno Banach and Clara Cantor at Durham University in England, then the poster and extended abstract should be authored by: Alex Abel, Bruno Banach (advisor), and Clara Cantor (advisor), Durham University, England.

Q. Is the artifact description appendix required in order to be considered a finalist in the ACM Student Research Competition?

A. No. The appendix is not required in order for a poster to be considered a finalist in the ACM Student Research Competition.

Research Posters

General Questions for Research Posters

Q. How is the Best Poster for Research Posters selected?

A. The Research Posters Committee nominates Best Poster candidates during the review process. At the conference, an ad-hoc committee judges poster content, including the optional artifact description appendix, and poster presentations during a Best Posters presentation session and the Posters Reception. After the reception, this committee convenes and selects a single best poster.

A separate award committee handles Best Student Poster in the context of the ACM Student Research Competition.

Q. Are Research Posters that submit an artifact description appendix eligible for an Artifacts Available badge as described on the ACM website?

A. No. Research posters are not eligible for any badges associated with reproduciblity artifacts.

Q. Can I submit a poster on HPC education?

A. Yes. Posters focusing on HPC education are within scope. This is one of the topics listed in the call for posters. There is no separate education track, so education posters will be evaluated as research posters and should be submitted using the same submission form as technical research posters. Archiving/Publishing

Q. Which ACM template should I use? There are two at the link you provided.

A. Please use the ACM Conference Proceedings “Master” Template for Research Posters abstracts.

Q. Do references count in the two-page limit for research poster abstracts?

A. References may spill over past the second page of the abstract but all technical content must fit in the two page limit.

Reproducibility for Research Posters

Q. Is an artifact description appendix required in order to make a submission to SC Posters?

A. The appendix is not required and is an option for Research Posters only.

Q. Do I need to make my software open-source in order to complete the artifact description appendix?

A. No. It is not required that you make any changes to your computing environment in order to complete the appendix. The artifact description appendix is meant to provide information about the computing environment you used to produce your results, reducing barriers for future replication of your results.

Q. Who will review my appendix?

A. The artifact description appendix will be submitted at the same time as your poster and will be reviewed as part of the standard review process by the same reviewers who handle the rest of your poster.

Q. Does the artifact description appendix really impact scientific reproducibility?

A. The artifact description appendix is simply a description of the computing environment used to produce the results in your poster. By itself, this appendix does not directly improve scientific reproducibility. However, a well-written appendix can be used by scientists (including the authors at a later date) to more easily replicate and build upon the results in the poster. Therefore, the artifact description appendix can reduce barriers and costs of replicating published results. It is an important first step toward full scientific reproducibility.

Q. What kind of recognition do I get for submitting these appendices?

A. There is no additional recognition for research posters that submit an artifact description appendix.

Doctoral Showcase

Q. Why is the poster for the Doctoral Showcase called “Thesis Canvas” and not simply “Poster”?

A. Thesis Canvas is meant to present the research during the PhD studies giving a broad and holistic perspective on the PhD thesis research questions, methodolody, results and their critical assesment. Instead, a poster presents a focused, specific research problem.

Scientific Visualization & Data Analytics Showcase

Q. What are the poster formatting requirements fors scientific visualization & data analytics showcase?

A. Submissions need to include a movie (up to 1GB in size) and a short paper (up to 6 pages including references). The short paper should describe the scientific story conveyed by the movie, how the visualization helps scientific discovery, and the “state-of-the-practice” information behind making the movie.

The video should be in MP4, MOV, or AVI format and use a codec that will play in typical desktop computer media players. There is no hard limit on video length, but typical videos are less than 10 minutes long, and the submitted file should be no more than 1GB.

The manuscript must be no more than 6 pages including references. The manuscripts should be formatted according to the guidelines for the Parallel Computing journal. Please use one of the following two templates when formatting your manuscript:

LaTeX Template – preferred Microsoft Word Template

The manuscript should be uploaded as a pdf for the initial submission.

Q. What is the submission process for Scientific Visualization and what is the review process?

A. Submissions need to include a movie (up to 1GB in size) and a short paper (up to 6 pages including references). The short paper should describe the scientific story conveyed by the movie, how the visualization helps scientific discovery, and the “state-of-the-practice” information behind making the movie.

Each submission will be peer reviewed by the Visualization & Data Analytics Showcase Committee. Criteria for review include:

How effective is the visual communication of the data? How relevant to the HPC community is the visualization? What is the impact of the science story and how well is it told? What visualization techniques were necessary to create the movie? Finally, submissions should consider SC19’s overall theme “HPC is now!”.

Entries are submitted through the SC Submissions website.