CNC/USNC-URSI Student Paper Contest

The Canadian National Committee (CNC) and the United States National Committee (USNC) of URSI are pleased to announce a Student Paper Competition to be held at the 2020 North American Radio Science Meeting in Montreal. This competition is jointly administered by CNC-URSI and USNC-URSI, and is open to all students participating in the conference that are enrolled at colleges or universities in Canada or the U.S. This Student Paper Competition is not related to the IEEE AP-S Student Paper Competition, which is administered by the IEEE AP-S SPC Committee.

Prizes will be awarded to five student papers. Awards (payable in USD) will be made as follows:

1. First Prize in the amount of $1000
2. Second Prize in the amount of $750
3. Third Prize in the amount of $500
4. Forth Prize in the amount of $250
5. Fifth Prize in the amount of $150

The deadline for submission of full papers on the conference web site is Monday, March 11, 2020. The five student finalists will present their papers during a special half-session devoted to the Student Paper Competition, which will be held during the conference (details on this will be posted later). Presentations will follow the normal style of URSI presentations (20 minutes total, including time for questions and answers). All Student Paper Competition participants (including finalists and non-finalists) are encouraged to submit their competition papers for publication in the journal Radio Science or another journal of their choice.

Rules and Guidelines for Paper Preparation

1. In addition to submitting a one-page abstract or two-page summary by January 17, 2020 in the standard USNC-URSI format, a student must write, as first author, a full paper of up to 25 pages in length (including figures and references). The full paper must be submitted on the conference abstract/summary submission web site no later than March 11, 2020.
2. The topic of the paper must be related to the field of one of URSI’s 10 Commissions. Students must indicate to which URSI Commission or Commissions (maximum of two) the topic of their paper is most relevant.

3. The paper must be in English and in the single-column manuscript format, as specified for the journal Radio Science and available on-line at

   http://www.agu.org/pubs/authors/manuscript_tools/journals/manuscript_prep.shtml
   (Click on “22 peer reviewed journals”, then “Journals”, then “Radio Science”, then “Submit an Article”, then “Author Instructions”, and then you will see “Author Resources” with templates available.)

   The length of the paper must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages, including figures and references. The text and caption font must be 12-point Times Roman. In using the Radio Science manuscript format, line numbers are not required, nor is it essential to start each Section on a new page.

   Submit your CNC/USNC-URSI Student Paper Contest full-length paper
4. University students in normal pursuit of a degree are eligible to enter a paper in the competition. The student must be enrolled in a college or university in either Canada or the U.S. at the time of submission.
5. Each student may submit only one paper to the Student Paper Competition. In addition, the paper must be the unaided work of only one graduate student (the lead author of the paper). The usual guidance provided to a graduate student by a research advisor and/or supervising professor is consistent with this rule, as is the co-authorship of the paper by the advisor or professor. In case of co-authorship, a letter from each advisor explicitly stating his/her level of contribution must accompany the paper upon submission. This letter should be appended as the last page of the PDF file of the paper.
6. A paper that is submitted to a journal before March 11, 2020 is ineligible. However, a student is encouraged to submit his/her paper to a journal after this date. Please note that the full paper submitted to the competition will not be published by the conference.
7. The five finalists in the CNC/USNC-URSI Student Paper Competition are required to present their papers in both the regular assigned session and the special Student Paper Competition session, since the finalists will be selected after the program for the conference has been finalized.

Questions regarding the competition should be addressed to:

CNC-URSI: Prof. David Michelson, University of British Columbia, at cnc-ursi-spc@2020apsursi.org

USNC-URSI: Prof. Erdem Topsakal, Virginia Commonwealth University, at usnc-ursi-spc@2020apsursi.org