Results of the RMBS Contest 2014

held in Denver, CO

Students Contest

Written Contest
Best Paper

Jennifer Harpole
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Second Place

James Gaewsky
Wake Forest

Third Place

Sarah McMullen
Miami University

Presentation Contest
Best Presentation

Vanessa Alphonse
Virginia Tech

Second Place

Paige Fisher
University of Wyoming

Third Place

Ray Daniel
Virginia Tech / Wake Forest

Poster Contest
Best Poster

Jennifer Harpole
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Second Place

Lishia Lee
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Third Place

Brad Martin
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Special Awards
President's Award

William Brad Hubbard
Virgina Tech / Wake Forest

Program Chairman's Award

Piyush Ranjan
Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Contest Chairman's Award

Mary Pearson
University of Mississippi Medical Center

Anthony Sances Jr. Award of Merit

Stephanie Recker
Miami University

All 32 students were automatically included in the contest. Since three of them submitted two papers, a total of 35 entries were judged. One author was originally classified as Student, but moved to the Professional category at the conference as she was a Professional.

For the written competition, all the papers were reviewed as part of the paper acceptance process: each paper was reviewed by 3 judges. 31 judges expressed their preferences in the written competition and 28 judges reviewed at least 3 papers. The three judges that reviews less than 3 papers were combined as one judge. The written scores were normalized for each judge and the total score for each paper was the average of the normalized scores.

At the symposium, 21 presentations and 11 posters were judged.

18 judges expressed their preferences in the presentation competition. Not all students were evaluated by the same judges and not all of them received the same number of votes, but each presentation was judged by at least 11 judges. The scores were again normalized for each judge and the total score for each presentation was the average of the normalized scores. One paper was presented by a Professional instead of a Student and as such the presenter was moved to the Professional category. One student with two presentations did not show at the conference and was removed from the competition.

4 judges expressed their preferences in the poster competition. As for the presentations, the scores were normalized for each judge and the total score for each poster was the average of the normalized scores. One student was not at the conference, but her poster was judged anyway since one of her colleagues presented it.

For the special awards, 4 judges were involved. Each judge subjectively selected and ranked up to 5 students as the possible winners of their special award.

Professionals Contest

Best Paper

G Venugopal
Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Best Presentation

Roy Geib
Indiana University School of Medicine

Best Poster

Michelle Tucci
University of Mississippi Medical Center

All 20 professionals were automatically included in the contest. Since two of them submitted two papers and one three, a total of 24 entries were judged. One author was originally classified as Professional, but moved to the Student category at the conference as he was a Student.

For the written competition, the same criteria as the student's written competitions applied.

At the symposium, 13 presentations and 11 posters were judged. At the conference 6 presentations were switched to poster. 13 students expressed their preferences in the Professional presentation competition, but only 5 of them expressed their preference in the Professional poster competition. Not all professionals were evaluated by the same students and not all of them received the same number of votes, but each professional was judged by at least 11 students in the Professional presentation competition and by 3 students in the Professional poster competition. The scores were again normalized for each judge and the total score for each professional was the average of the normalized scores.