A good poster expresses a novel idea in a simple, concise way. Posters are particularly well-suited for ideas that are still "under construction," and for student work. Work submitted as a poster does not need to be complete, but it should have enough substance to be evaluated.
The Posters program also hosts the ACM Student Research Competition. It is appropriate to submit Student Research poster on research presented elsewhere (including SIGGRAPH 2010), provided it was presented within the last year.
For additional submission information, please see Frequently Asked Questions.
Log in to the SIGGRAPH Information System, select "Begin a New Submission," and then select "create" for the General or Late-Breaking submission form. You will be asked for:
- Basic information about your submission (page 1)
- Permissions (page 2)
- A presentation format (page 3). To propose a Poster, please select Poster as your presentation format. You will then be taken to the forms specific to this presentation format. Please see below for more information about required information and materials for this presentation format.
Your submission must include the following materials and information:
- Basic submission information, including submitter name, affiliation, and contact information, as well as title of the work, a single-sentence summary that introduces the achievements of your work (50 words or fewer), and a one-paragraph overview that highlights the innovations or significant accomplishments and contributions to the SIGGRAPH community (150 words or fewer).
- One "representative image" suitable for use in the conference web site and promotional materials. See Representative Image Guidelines.
- Statement of permissions to use the submitted materials.
- A 300-word description of your submission to be used on the web site.
- A one-page abstract describing your work (PDF). The abstract should include what area you are working in, what is novel about your work, and how this work fits into existing work.
- Submission categories and keywords to help ensure your submission is reviewed and juried appropriately.
- Up to six supplementary images and/or a maximum five-minute supplementary video. We only accept uploaded videos in QuickTime MPEG-4 or DivX Version 6 formats, and the file size should not exceed 100 MB. The file must be uploaded using the online submission system.
- If you are a student, and your work is your own and not part of a group project, you may check a box to request entry in the ACM Student Research Competition.
- Non-native English speakers may use the English Review Service to help improve the text of submissions. Please note that this process takes time, so plan far ahead.
If you are submitting a talk as part of the same form, the talk and the poster will share the same abstract.
Non-native English speakers may use the English Review Service to help improve the text of submissions. Please note that this process takes time, so plan far ahead.
New requirement: All submitters must complete the Submission and Authorization Agreement (formerly the Acceptance Agreement) before the submission deadline. Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed or accepted.
Educator’s Resources Submission option. Those submitting content to a SIGGRAPH conference have the option of donating materials of educational value to ACM SIGGRAPH online resources for the benefit of the education community. Learn more
For more information about uploading files for your submission, please see Uploading Files.
For additional submission information, please see Frequently Asked Questions.
A research poster must describe a novel contribution and show at least preliminary results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The work does not need to be complete, but it should convince the jury that the approach has promise. Primary reasons research posters are rejected:
1. The submission materials did not convince the jury that there was anything new in the approach, either because the abstract did not clearly differentiate the work from existing work, or because there were no results or evaluation that demonstrated the potential of the approach.
2. The submission materials did not clearly convey both the problem and the proposed solution. Pictures and videos help a lot, but if the abstract does not adequately convey how the images or videos were made, then the poster is unlikely to be accepted.
Demonstration, Application, or Systems Posters
These are posters that describe how a particular demo, video, or image was made, or how a set of existing technologies was linked together to produce a system that achieves a specific goal. The specific technologies need not be new, but the entire system should support doing something that wasn't possible before. Posters of this type must clearly convey what the overall goal is, what the technologies are, how they fit together, why they were chosen, and how the final system meets that goal. Primary reasons posters of this type are rejected:
1. It is unclear what the proposed approach is trying to accomplish and why existing tools are not sufficient to accomplish that goal.
2. The submission materials do not clearly demonstrate that the desired goal was reached.
3. A poster is not an appropriate medium for the submission because a poster is just a static set of images and text. This usually applies to work that is best experienced live or in interactive situations, and which involves fairly complex hardware that can't easily be brought to a poster session.
Other reasons for rejection:
1. The submitted poster is just an image, such as a movie poster or piece of artwork.
2. The poster is an advertisement for a product (game, movie, device, etc.)
3. The poster just proposes an interesting problem or discussion area.
Jurors are asked to evaluate your submission using four criteria: Concept, Novelty, Interest, and Quality. The final submission score is based on a combination of these factors. For example, a submission that is high quality, has broad appeal, and contains something new is likely to be accepted, while a submission that is incremental, of interest to only a small number of people, and poorly written will probably be rejected.
How exceptional are the ideas, problems, solutions, aesthetics, etc. presented in this submission? How coherently does the submission convey its overall concept? Is the concept similar to existing ones, or does it stand out? This criterion is particularly applicable to submissions that put together existing technologies into a single product (for example, demos, animations, art pieces). Submissions of this type, where the individual technologies are not necessarily new but their combination is, are evaluated on both the final product and how well proposed technologies integrate to meet the desired goals. Many submissions in this area are rejected because they do what existing systems do, and they do not demonstrate that the proposed approach leads to better results.
How new and fresh is this work? Is it a new, ground-breaking approach to an old problem, or is it an existing approach with a slightly new twist? You must first demonstrate to the jury that your work is sufficiently different from existing approaches. Second, you should evaluate you work in the context of other approaches where appropriate: Is it faster? Easier to use? Does it give better results? Is it more accurate? Many submissions are rejected either because the work is too similar to existing work or because the submission materials did not convince the jury that the improvements were substantial enough.
Will conference attendees want to see this? Will it inspire them? Are the results or approach appealing to a broad audience? This is partly a measure of how broad the potential audience is and partly a measure of the overall clarity and novelty of the submission. A submission in a very niche area is more likely to be accepted if the results are exceptionally better than what exists already, or if the proposed solution might be applicable to other areas.
Quality, Craft, and Completeness
This is a measure of how well-written the abstract is and the quality of the supporting materials. The abstract must effectively communicate both the problem and the solution in enough detail and clarity that the jury can evaluate it. You must also convince the jury that your solution works. Many submissions are rejected because, while the problem and solution seemed interesting, the materials did not convince the jury that the solution had actually been implemented and evaluated. If your submission has an animation, simulation, or interactive component, then including a video is essential.
If you submit your work for the General Submissions deadline, you will be notified of acceptance or rejection during the week of 20 April 2010. If you submit your work for the Late-Breaking deadline, you will be notified of acceptance or rejection around 20 May 2010.
If your work is accepted, you will be required to prepare a poster (four feet x four feet) that describes your work. You will also be required to prepare and deliver a revised version of your one-page abstract, and you can provide final versions of auxiliary material (if any), to supplement the abstract.
You will be able to update your basic submission information and any final materials so that it can be included in the conference program and web site. This information needs to be finalized two weeks after receipt ofacceptance notifications. These dates are: 3 May 2010 for General Submission work and 1 June 2010 for Late-Breaking Submission work. Please be prepared to deliver your final versions of your information and work on or before these dates.
If you wish to attend SIGGRAPH 2010, registration and travel costs are at your own expense, except for the contributor of record, who will receive recognition as specified in the SIGGRAPH 2010 Recognition Policy.
You will receive information on when and where your poster will be presented, and when your poster session is scheduled.
You are responsible for bringing your poster to the conference. Student volunteers will be available all day Sunday to help you hang your poster. Please check in at the desk located in the West Hall Lobby for your poster location.
You are encouraged to bring a portable computer to demo your work to interested attendees. The computer should be well charged, because electrical power may not be available. Do not leave your computer or other equipment unattended with the poster. Posters are displayed in unsecured areas.
If you requested entry into the ACM Student Research Competition, and your poster is accepted, it will be passed to the Student Research Competiton jury for consideration. You will be contacted separately by the Student Research Competiton Chair.
Deadline for all General Submission forms and upload of materials.
19 February - 25 March
Assignment and online review of all General Submissions
Jury meeting for all General Submissions.
30 March - 19 April
Final selection and scheduling for General Submissions.
Acceptance and scheduling information or rejection notices are sent to
all General Submissions submitters.
Deadline for changes to materials for publication, including speakers, short and long descriptions, abstracts, papers, and images.
Deadline for all Late-Breaking Submission forms and upload of materials.
Assignment and online review for all Late-Breaking Submissions
Jury meeting and final selection of Late-Breaking content.
Acceptance and scheduling, information or rejection notices are sent to all Late-Breaking submitters.
Deadline for changes to materials for publication, including speakers, short and long descriptions, abstracts, and images.
SIGGRAPH 2010, Los Angeles