The Finalist Judges will read all the final reports after they are submitted on the first Wednesday in April. During a telephone conference call on the third Wednesday in April they will select about half a dozen teams as first-round finalists. These teams will present their work to the Finalist Judges on the following Monday morning. During the time that these teams are presenting to the Finalist Judges, all of the other teams will be making their 20 minute poster board presentations to the Expo Judges. At the completion of these presentations, the Expo Judges will caucus to determine award recipients and to determine which teams will advance to the Finals as second-round finalists (afternoon session). At the completion of judging, the Finalist Judges will select first and second place, honorable mention, and determine other awards.
Finalist Judges evaluate each Finalist team (both morning and afternoon sessions - typically 8 to 10 teams); most of the Finalist Judges review the Final reports and their notes again before the presentation and most have the Final reports on their laptops during the presentations - the questions they ask about things covered in the Final report are part of the process of determining whether the team actually did the work they claim and whether they understand their project and its software (or whether they are parroting their mentors/sponsors/teachers); the Finalist judges caucus to determine award recipients.
During the Expo period, judges who are familiar with your Final Report will visit your team and its Display Board and talk with all of you about your work including research, scientific methodology, computational results, and conclusions. They will ask questions to ascertain how clearly you understand your project. All team members should be able to show that they understand the work. Remember that you will have divided up the work including research, model development, programming, report writing, and the poster presentation.
All teams may bring a separate poster for the Logo contest. Teams may choose to have one of their graphics from their Display Board Presentation be their Logo Contest entry. Similarly, teams may indicate on their Display Board Presentation a particular section to be considered for the Technical Poster Award and that will become the cover of the Final Reports publication. Posters must be comprised of original artwork and text! You may not copy or borrow pictures, artwork, slogans, etc. from any outside source without giving credit.
All teams are encouraged to write to Consult if they would like to discuss their work after judging is completed.