Hello everyone!

Below is an e-mail that I received a few days ago.

If you are interested in writting & submitting a technical paper for the
possibility of some prices, keep reading!

Have a good summer,
Sincerely,

Ana Correa

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: SWE Reminder: Technical Paper Deadline
From: "Deb Willems" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, May 20, 2004 6:50 pm
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>


REMINDER - JUNE 1 DEADLINE FOR TECHNICAL PRESENTATION COMPETION

Hello SWE students,

The 2004 Technical Presentation Competition (TPC) deadline is quickly
approaching! Remember that Region Student Coordinators must receive all
papers by June 1.  No late papers will be accepted.

This is a great opportunity to show off your technical abilities! The
winner from each SWE region will have their transportation paid to the
National Conference (October 14-16, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) to
compete against the other regions. All of the TPC finalists' papers are
included in the Conference proceedings and posted on the SWE web site.
Complete information is below.

Thanks,
Deb Willems
TPC Coordinator
[log in to unmask]

SWE Student Technical Presentation Competition
Any undergraduate Student Member is eligible to submit a technical paper
for the regional written competition.  One finalist is selected from
each region to compete at the National Student Conference in an oral
competition.  Each regional finalist will receive a set
transportation allocation to be used to attend the National
Conference.  Three national winners are selected at the Conference.

(1)     Schedule
June 1  Deadline for technical papers to be received by the student's
appropriate Regional Student Coordinator

July 1  Finalists notified that they have been selected on the basis of
their submitted papers to compete in the oral portion of the
competition

October 16 The finalists will compete by presenting their information in
the Technical Presentation Competition at the National Conference

(2)     Eligibility
Any SWE Student member in good standing, i.e. whose dues are paid and is
an undergraduate majoring in engineering or a related or allied field is
eligible.  This includes all students who graduate during the current
fiscal year.  Previous regional winners of the Technical Presentation
Competition are not eligible.

(3)     Guidelines for Entries to the Technical Presentation Competition
The Technical Paper should be a report describing original research with
an application in engineering.  This can be either laboratory work or a
computer simulation or modeling project, but it is
important that it is new work, unique to you, and is not a review
article in which you summarize the work of others.  You can write
about a project you are working on alone, as an independent study
project, or one you are working on with others.  Some schools have
courses that involve group projects as part of their class
assignments.  These are perfectly acceptable to write about, as long as
they involve original work.  You may also write about a project you
worked on during a summer job or co-op assignment.

Your paper must show that you understand background material relevant to
the topic, and should include an explanation of what you are doing and
why, a presentation of results, a discussion of these results, and some
brief recommendations for what should be done next.  In
other words, it should be constructed as a paper for publication in a
technical journal.  It would be useful for you to look through some
journals to get a good idea of what is included in papers, and what
writing style is used.  If you have any questions, please ask your
Regional Student Coordinator for clarification.

The writing style for papers for publication is typically rather
formal.  You can assume that the readers of your paper are scientists
and engineers who have a sound knowledge of general principles in the
basic sciences and engineering, but they may not be familiar with
terminology specific to a particular field.

[guidelines developed by Dr. Miriam Maslanik, University of Colorado at
Boulder and Dr. Bonnie Glatz, Iowa State University.]

(4)     Format
The entire paper may not exceed 25 pages: a maximum of 10
double-spaced typewritten pages of text and a maximum of 15 pages for
all additional material (abstract, tables, figures, etc.)  an
abstract must be included on the cover page.  Send one electronic
copy of the abstract, text, and any figures with the completed
application form (Appendix L) to your appropriate Regional Student
Coordinator (if you do not know who your Regional Student Coordinator
is, ask your SWE section officer, SWE faculty advisor, or call SWE
Headquarters).  If you are selected as a Region winner, you will need to
submit a complete single-spaced copy of your paper (with
attachments) for publication.  The Regional Student Coordinator must
receive entries no later than May 15th.  Finalists will be notified by
June 15.

(5)     Judging
Regional finalists will be selected on the basis of the written
entries by panels of engineers of different backgrounds.  ONE
finalist will be selected from the eligible entries of each region.
Judging criteria include the paper's appearance, organization,
problem definition, development of alternative solutions,
presentation of research, experimentation or modeling, and
conclusions.

All finalists will compete in an oral competition at the National
Student Conference.  Each speaker is allotted 15 minutes.  Five
minutes of questions from the judges are permitted.  Speakers will be
evaluated on the basis of their verbal presentations (poise, voice,
posture, visual aids, appearance, organization, etc.), as well as the
technical content of the presentation.  Judging criteria will be
distributed to the speakers prior to the Conference.  The judging
panel usually consists of about four judges from various engineering
disciplines and includes at least one national SWE officer.

(6)     Awards
The regional finalists will receive information about the
transportation allocation from SWE Headquarters.  Although the
transportation allocation will vary from year to year, it will
typically cover a reduced rate coach class airfare.  In return for
accepting the transportation costs, the entrant agrees to participate in
the practice session and oral competition at the National
Conference.

All region winners will be honored at the Student Awards Banquet.
Although the prizes may vary, the national winners typically receive
cash awards of $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $750
for third place.