A number of student events are held at the IMS. These consist of a student paper competition and a number of other competitions, which vary from year to year. This year, the following competitions will be held:

• Student Paper Competition
• Information for Student Paper Finalists
• Creativity in Microwave Measurements Competition (PDF)
  
• High Efficiency Power Amplifier Design Competition (rev. 16 Jan.) (PDF)
  
• Optical to Microwave Converter Design Competition (PDF)
• Packaged Diplexer Design Competition (PDF)
  
• Student ASH Receiver Design Contest (PDF)

Each contest has its own rules and procedures. For a page describing the rules and entry procedures for each contest, please click on the relevant link.

Student Volunteers

Student volunteers are needed for every day of the conference. Volunteering is a tremendous opportunity to experience the conference first hand!

Typical duties may include

• Monitoring technical sessions/workshops;
• Assisting in registration;
• Directing participants to conference events;
• Generally helping to ensure a successful symposium.

Volunteers who work a total of 8 hours will receive free registration. (Details on receiving free registration will be sent to volunteers by email.) Food and beverages will be provided during hours of service, including breakfast, lunch, and snacks. All volunteers will be eligible to win significant raffle prizes and have the opportunity to attend special events. For example, we are currently planning to raffle several laptop computers, purchased for the conference, to student volunteers.

Interested students should email ims2010.volunteers@gmail.com by March 26th with contact information and availability.

Industry-Sponsored Prizes

In addition to the winner's prize, listed in the High Efficiency Power Amplifier Design Competition announcement, the top three finalists wiill receive special, industry sponsored prizes:

• AWR will award those finalists free, personal-use, one-year licenses Microwave Office and VSS design suites.
• Modelithics will award the finalists a similar license for its "Modelithics Library Complete" suite of simulation models.

Information for Student Paper Finalists (all PDFs)

• Information for finalists
• Guidelines for interactive forum presentations
• Travel grant application
• US form W9 (US citizens)
• US form W-8BEN (non-US citizens)
  

Student Paper Competition Rules

1. The purpose of the Student Paper Competition is to recognize outstanding technical contributions from individual students. In general, only one or two authors are allowed for each Student Paper: The first author must be the student; the second author would normally be the student's major advisor.
2. Additional authors are permitted provided that the significant portion of the work is performed by the submitting student and that the role and effort of each author is documented by the student’s advisor in the advisor letter. This will be considered on a case-by-case basis and requires supplemental documentation by the student’s advisor.
3. All students wishing to participate in the competition are required to follow the regular Symposium submission process for papers.
4. Papers must be identified as Student Paper Competition submissions during the electronic submission process. To be considered for an award, the student must have been a full time student (enrolled for a minimum of nine hours per term as graduate students or twelve hours per term as undergraduates) during the time the work was performed.
5. The student's major advisor is required to submit a letter indicating that the research presented in the paper is primarily the work of the student, done while the first author was a student, and that the contribution from other authors is primarily advisory. If the paper has more than two authors, this letter must also include for each author: a) percentage of technical effort contributed to the work, b) title or role of each author, and c) a single sentence describing the technical contribution of each author. Failure to provide this letter will result in disqualification.  Email is an acceptable method for transmitting this information. Additional information may be requested for incomplete response letters.
6. Student Paper Competition submissions are first evaluated by the Technical Paper Review Committee (TPRC) as regular papers, along with all other manuscript submissions, and receive no special consideration when being considered for acceptance to the Symposium. 
7. Only those papers that are accepted for presentation at the Symposium, have been identified as Student Paper submissions, and that meet the criteria listed above become eligible for the Student Paper Competition.
8. The eligible student papers will be separately reviewed by the Technical Program Committee (TPC) in order to select the Student Paper Finalists. 
9. The lead author (student) must present the paper at the Student Paper Competition’s Interactive Forum and during the assigned Symposium session.
10. Finalists will receive email notification, and receive special recognition in the IMS2010 Technical Program. Notification will be provided by February 1st, 2010.