Computational Modelling Group

Iridis Student Project contest 2014 - a chance to present your work and win a Nexus tablet

5th February 2014

This year once again the Computational Modelling Group and iSolutions invite PhD students to participate in the Iridis Student Project Contest. We seek the best presentation demonstrating how Iridis supercomputer is exploited to support subject specific research.

when: 4th CMG Annual Meeting, 31st of March 2014
where: Nuffield Theatre, Lecture Theatre A (6/1077)
deadline for submissions: noon 10/03/2014

Your presentation should:

  • introduce the research project;
  • feature and explain the role of Computational Methods and use of Iridis Cluster in your work;
  • be aimed at a general audience;

A panel of academics and computing experts will do the short listing and choose winners to be awarded the Iridis PhD Competition Prizes during the 4rd CMG Annual Meeting on March 31st.

The contest is open to all PhD students in the University of Southampton (including those who have completed their degree in 2013).

Submission method

To enter the contest, students must submit a short (two to three paragraphs) written project description that includes:

  • A title
  • A short summary (two or three sentences)
  • A brief overview of the project and its goals (two to three paragraphs)
  • An image illustrating the research subject with a caption
  • The name of supervisor and other team members if applicable.

This summary should take into account the objectives listed above and should be an introduction to the topic, with an explanation of the role played by computation. It must be accessible to a non-expert audience.

The preferred form of the project description is a project entry on the CMG website (this manual explains how to create a project). You can see a number of other research projects in this alphabetically sorted list (or sorted by topic).

If you would like to take part in the competition but consider your work confidential or prefer not to submit a project to the CMG pages, please enquire about alternative submission methods by emailing hpc@soton.ac.uk.

If you have already created such a project page about your work in the past and would like to enter your project as a candidate for the contest, you can simply email the URL (see 'Submission deadline').

The competition will take place in two stages:

A project description should be submitted by noon on March, 10th 2014 (see Submission method). Three finalists will be selected from all the submissions and invited to deliver a presentation at the 4th CMG Annual Meeting on March 31st. If your submission is shortlisted, you will be asked to prepare a 10 minute presentation on your research topic. The list of three finalists will be published on the CMG site by March 21st, 2014.

The best presentation delivered at the CMG Annual Meeting will be selected by a panel and the presenter will be awarded the Iridis PhD Competition Prize for the Best Oral Presentation - a Nexus 10 tablet.

Submission deadline

An email to hpc@soton.ac.uk that contains an URL of the project webpage should be received by noon on 3d of March 2014. The subject of the email should be "Iridis student project contest".

Assessment criteria

Entries will be judged based on the following criteria:

  • Whether it allows non-experts to gain insight into the research subject;
  • Demonstration and importance of Iridis usage in achieving research goals;
  • Clarity, organization and visual design of the presentation;
  • Presentation skills

The decision of the panel (both for shortlisting and the selection of the best presentation on March 31st, 2014) is non-negotiable and final.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact us at hpc@soton.ac.uk

Elena Vataga (iSolutions) Hans Fangohr (Computational Modelling Group)