-15 June 2011-URISA--Poster competitions are an excellent means of illustrating and testing how well students are able to demonstrate both research skills and communication skills. Many geography and GIS degree and certificate programs sponsor student poster competitions, particularly as part of their GIS Day events.

GIS Day 2011 is Wednesday, November 16, 2011 and URISA is pleased to announce its support of GIS Day student poster competitions.

Recognition of GIS Day achievements is important to URISA. We look forward to receiving two types of contributions to support GIS Day Student Poster Competitions. First, we welcome receipt of GIS Day poster competition guidelines. There will no doubt be similarities and differences among the guidelines, and we look forward to presenting an informative and comprehensive display of the kinds of criteria which professors use to give directions to students, and to the judges who are evaluating the posters. We also welcome receipt of the posters that are selected as winning entries to promote the accomplishments of both the students and institutions.

It is expected that URISA’s GIS Day Student Poster Competition page will quickly become a very valuable GIS teaching and research resource, and we look forward to assisting professors, students, and competition judges as they plan their GIS Day activities. For further details, please visit http://www.urisa.org/gisday_posters.

In further recognition of the winning posters, URISA is pleased to provide one-year student memberships for the best poster in each category.

"By posting the guidelines behind GIS Day poster competitions, and also posting the outstanding student posters, URISA is promoting advances in GIS research methods and techniques, communications, and achievements. This is a very significant contribution to GIS education, training, and apps. Congratulations to URISA for this exceptional initiative." -  Barry Wellar, GISP, PhD, Wellar Consulting and (ret.) Professor of Geography, University of Ottawa