An informative presentation made to 200 undergraduate engineering students.

1. Making an Effective Poster
Kevin Mueller
Thursday, July 10, 2008

2. 2
Goal of Poster Presentation
• Stimulate interest and discussion
• Receive feedback on research
• Make new contacts
• Or…..if you are a graduate student
– To appease your advisor
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

3. 3
Poster Requirements I
• Size
– Posters should be 4’x3’ or 3’x4’
• Audience
– Peers
– Professors
– Graduate students
• Audience may also include
– Corporate visitors
– Sponsors
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

4. 4
Poster Requirements II
• Posters must include the following:
– Your name
– School or department (e.g. School of Nuclear Engineering)
– Professor’s name
– Graduate mentor’s name
– Laboratory name (if appropriate)
– Purdue University
– Sponsor acknowledgement
– Date
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

5. 5
Poster Requirements III
• Title
• Abstract
• Objectives
– Introduction to the problem
• Methodology
– What was your approach to the problem?
• Results & discussion
• Conclusion & future work
• References
– Give credit where it is deserved!
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

6. 6
Planning the Poster I
• Posters should be:
– Visually appealing
• Well-chosen background
• Typed, dark text that contrasts well with background
• Charts, graphs, diagrams
– Easy to read
• Should be able to see everything from 4’ away
• Information should flow from top left to bottom right
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

7. 7
Planning the Poster II
• Posters should also be:
– Simple, clear, and concise
• Use short sentences
• Use a simple sentence structure
• Highlight results with charts, graphs
• AVOID
– Jargon
– Abbreviations
– Acronyms
– Large amounts of text (USE TEXT SPARINGLY)
– Large tables of data
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

8. 8
Planning the Poster III
• Typical poster layout
– Note: Poster consists of several columns and
reads from left to right
Title
Intro
Conclusion
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

9. 9
Suggested Fonts
• Use so-called “sans serif” fonts
– Arial
– Comic Sans MS
– Helvetica
• Letters should not bleed together
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

10. 10
Suggested Font Sizes
• Title: 80 pt
• Authors: 40 pt
• Affiliations: 30 pt
• Text: 28 pt
• Acknowledgements: 18 pt
Making an Effective Poster- July 10, 2008

11. 11
More suggestions
• You can use a lined border around sections
– Key is to separate the sections
• Avoid using red and green together on charts
– Difficult to read for the colorblind
• Avoi