The PSA 2023 Student Research Lightning Round Winner will be presented to a student who best presents their research in exactly one slide and three minutes. Two awards will be given: one to a graduate student and one to an undergraduate student (if undergraduate participation is too low to merit a separate category, undergraduates and first-year graduate students will be grouped into an “early-stage” category). 

Competition Process and Criteria

In this special session, participants will explain their scholarly research in exactly one slide and three minutes (165-195 seconds). Presentations should include information on the research motivation, methods, data, anticipated results, impact, and stakeholders, sponsors, and collaborators). The audience is a technical audience – all researchers focused on various aspects of PSA. A panel of experts will judge the presentations.  

Eligibility Requirements 

The presenter must be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a university program at the time of presentation. The majority of work presented in the paper should be attributable to the student.   

All students registered to attend PSA 2023 are invited to participate. The lightning round talk does not need to be associated with a paper submitted to the PSA conference, but the topic must fall within the domain of PSA. Students are encouraged to present on their capstone, thesis, or dissertation topic at its current stage to help hone presentation skills and advance the visibility of their work.  

Interested participants should apply to this opportunity by filling out this Google Form. 

You will receive a copy of your responses as confirmation that your form has been submitted. If more participants apply than can be accommodated during the session, participants will be selected by the organizers to ensure a diversity of topics and participant backgrounds.  

Key submission dates: 

  • Abstract due by Friday, June 9 
  • Participant selections confirmation, June 16 
  • Participants must register for PSA conference by June 23 
  • Session will be held during PSA 2023 (July 15-20, 2023)  

Slide Submission instructions: 

  • Please submit slides in both pdf and native (e.g., PowerPoint (.pptx)) file format. File names must begin with Lastname_Univ_PSA2023. For example, Groth_UMD_PSA2023.pptx and Groth_UMD_PSA2023.pdf. 
  • Slide must be submitted via email. Send an email with your two files attached to: Lightni.0v48z5h06k8vvb49@u.box.com  
  • Slides must be received by July 15, 2023.  

Contact For questions and inquiry, please email the competition organizers: Dr. Vincent Paglioni (paglioni.research@gmail.com) and Dr. Katrina Groth (kgroth@umd.edu )