2021 Tasks/FAQs

For the Orals: Formal Business.

For the Poster Presentations: Business Casual

When unsure, choose formal over informal.

Use the “Scored Event” link (the link you register for) to access the Zoom Test.

The test is optional and will be used to test your team’s virtual background and our Breakout Room procedures.

I hope you can attend, but it is not mandatory. Bring your own drinks and snacks!

Be sure to use the name and email address associated with your WERC Team Site account. This will help us prepare for your arrival and let you in to the meeting in a timely manner.

The link you were sent was for all scored events.

• If you are a Bench-scale Division team (Tasks 1, 3, 5, 6), use the link for your April 6 Bench-scale Demonstration and your April 12 Oral Presentation.
• If you are a Desktop Division team (Tasks 1D, 3D, 4D, 5D, or 6D) or Task 2 (Bench-scale Division), use the link for your April 12 Oral Presentation and your April 13 Poster Presentation.

Team Schedules

On the same page, you will also find your time slot for your team’s scored events. Note: Included in the Countdown Calendar is notice that we will need a Team Photo. We would like to post this during the Awards Ceremony when a team wins an award so everyone can see the people behind the award.

b. Include your University colors and logo.

c. This helps the judges and our staff tremendously as we interact with you.

d. All of our staff will use the official WERC background to help you identify us.

We scheduled the Bench-scale Discussions and the Poster Presentations with a 45-minute (minimum) break between the first and the second session, giving the team a chance to re-group, discuss strategy, etc., in preparation for the next group of judges to enter their breakout room. Some faculty members attend the first presentation and advise the teams during the break.

Show any or all of:
• your team’s personality
• your research lab
• your school mascot
• your team discovering something fascinating, or playing around, or whatever.

Submitting the video:
We prefer that you use WeTransfer.com and send the video to vlad23@nmsu.edu.
There is also a submission tab on the WERC team site, but your file might be too big for it. Better play it safe and send via WeTransfer. It is free and you do not need to sign up for an account to send a file.

More details coming in the Annotated Contest Timeline (watch your email on April 4).

Examples—2020 Team Submissions in YouTube Playlist:
See 2020 Team Videos—the teams had only one week to put a video together. See what they did:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmFj2Y55_kz0WjvSqKjzxaoHBzuJge5wq

• Flash Talks

• Remaining Deadlines

• Detailed Schedules for Bench-scale Discussions, Oral Presentations, and Poster Discussions.

You will be emailed an annotated contest timeline by April 4, 2021. This will contain important instructions and helpful hints for submissions.

For your technical report, please submit pages in this order:

1) Cover page. Use the format specified in your Team Manual. The Team Manual erroneously also listed a title page in addition to the cover page. Please use only a cover page and no title page.

2) Table of Contents.

3) Executive Summary. Follow the formatting specifications in the Team Manual.

4) Technical Report body, including abstract and references. Follow the IEEE template format

5) Three Audits. No specific format is required.

It may be easiest to create a pdf for each item above and stack them together into one file when all are finalized.

If you have a large team, we understand that you want to give each person on your team experience. The best way to do this is to have one group present the oral report and the other group conduct the bench-scale demonstration with the judges (or the Poster discussion, if you’re a Desktop team). Since judges will come to the latter event three times (each time a smaller group of 2-3 judges), you could even switch off who does the Bench-scale/Poster discussion with each new set of judges.

If, after knowing the above, you still want more presenters at the Orals, we will allow you to decide how many will present, but we recommend no more than 5 people.  If you divide the presentation up so much that each person gets fewer than 3 minutes of presentation time, it may not be as valuable an experience as you hope, and it could lead to a poor experience for your team.

No matter how many you have on the team, rehearse your transitions. It should require only: “Now Sydney will address environmental hazards,” Then Sydney starts in right away. Not breaking up the flow with additional introductions (Don’t say, “Hello, I am Sydney.”)  Just keep the flow going. Be cautious of passing off the screen sharing – this can cause delays that could spoil your presentation – Can you keep the flow going better with one person operating the slides while others speak? It is your choice.

1) The judges will come to your breakout room in groups of 2-3, for a total of three sessions with the judges.

2) There are no limits on the number of students who can speak to the judges during each session. We leave it up to you to decide how to best manage your team during this event.

3) You may either:

a) print out a poster (see manual for specifications) and have your Zoom camera positioned to allow team members to approach the poster and point out information, as needed.

b) prepare a brochure (see manual for specifications). Upload your brochure to the WERC team site for judges to download. During the Discussion, you can refer the judges to portions of the brochure (make sure it is numbered in a way to allow you to refer to specific portions of the brochure). You may also share your screen with the judges.

1) March 29–Submit Technical Report by 11:59 PM

2) April 11–Opening Ceremony (Team videos shown)

3) April 12–Oral Presentations

4) April 12–Flash Talks (optional)

5) April 13–Poster/Brochure Discussion and address questions brought up by judges during the Oral Presentation.

6) April 14–Awards Ceremony

1) April 5 or 6–Bench-scale demonstrations and Poster Presentation

2) April 11–Opening Ceremony (Team videos shown)

3) April 12–Oral Presentations and address questions brought up by judges during the Bench-scale/Poster Presentation.

4) April 12–Flash Talks (optional)

5) April 13–No events –This is a change from the original schedule. Explanation will be sent in the detailed schedule.

6) April 14–Awards Ceremony

Heads up: Bench-scale demonstrations that run longer than a couple of hours will need to use a webcam for remote monitoring of the apparatus. You will provide a link to WERC. We will share this with the judges and competing teams who can drop in at any time. You will record the bench-scale run and provide it to us only upon request.

Note that our formatting requirements for the body of the paper have changed since those reports were submitted.

Guidelines page: https://iee.nmsu.edu/outreach/events/international-environmental-design-contest/guidelines/

• The audits are mandatory. Arrange for auditors as early as possible, but have them wait to review the technical report until it is in near-final form. We suggest that you hand the auditors your draft three weeks prior to the submission date (see Team Manual, “General Paper Preparation Hints.”

• The purpose of audits is to help you find problems with your report. It is to your advantage to select auditors who have not been deeply involved in your design process. Faculty at the university could qualify, but the faculty advisor who is directly mentoring you on your project is not a good resource because that person may not be able to see issues that fresh eyes could see.

• WERC will not investigate the level of involvement of your auditors prior to them auditing your report.

• Audits are required in three separate areas: 1) Economics, 2) Health Issues, 3) Legal Issues. One auditor should address Economics, a second auditor should address Health issues, and the third legal issues.

Preliminary Report: Due February 25, 2021

All teams running bench-scale demos should follow your institution’s lab safety policies. NMSU teams are expected to submit an ESP through Juanita Miller.