Call for University Posters

[KevinS]

Looking for some advise here.
I'm working with my ISA chapter and trying to bring a new idea to our next annual conference.
I'm pasting the general idea of it below. Our idea is to invite university/college student working on thesis, or equivalent works as display posters to be up during our conference.
This gives students coming into the field a chance to show/ publish there work and lets our industry see from the up and comers.

I have emailed numerous universities/colleges in Canada with no luck as of yet. Does anyone have any suggestions or know of students/ schools/ programs that this project would be mutually beneficial.

Thanks for the help feel free to ask questions or pass this along or I have a formal email with registration sheets and full details.




2017 Conference Theme

With this conference, the ISAO Education Committee hopes to identify the issues we face to preserve, protect, retain, and care for trees in construction zones and other influences beyond our direct control. As Arborists we feel we need to always be looking for more information and techniques to deal with the issues that can confront us in cases where the trees may not be the primary focus of the project, or they need to be retained with minimal impact on the project. In these situations we as Arborists are asked to perform tasks that may prove difficult to perform: such as making healthy trees out of stressed trees, or working in trees that have been severely damaged and are unsafe to work on with traditional methods. As these challenges face us, there is enormous potential to develop innovative tools to enhance and promote the care of trees for present and future generations.


Poster presentations are now being accepted

We are inviting students to submit university thesisposter board projects that are related to the arboriculture and forestry industries. The posters will be on display for view by arboriculture professionals from all aspects of the industry for the duration of the conference.


Poster Topic Suggestions:

· All arboriculture-related research

· Urban forestry management

· The impact of construction on established trees and new plantings

· Building specifications and municipal by-laws that impact the preservation or planting of trees during construction phases

· Soil management and nutrient availability/deficiencies

· Entomology and Pathology as related to arboriculture or forestry

· New planting species available to us in our changing environment

· Tree Worker Topics including Safe Working Practices, Climbing Techniques, Advanced Rigging Techniques, equipment testing results

· Other, please describe topic in your application



Proposals will be evaluated based on overall quality, appropriateness and timeliness of topic, well-defined focus, and practical application of material, and the subject’s interest to a diverse audience.

Students whose posters are selected will be required to sign a confirmation agreement and submit additional details in advance.

 

[guymayor]

This is a valuable medium not only for students but arborists who do work outside the box. Done at ISA International and would indeed be valuable at chapter conferences. No reason to limit the input.

 

[mrtree]

Is it really surprising that graduate degree university students with a minimum of 4 years behind them are not interested in contributing to a meeting that has no academic or scientific credentials, let alone an audience that is likely to be interested? What are you offering to these students?

 

[KevinS]

Is it really surprising that graduate degree university students with a minimum of 4 years behind them are not interested in contributing to a meeting that has no academic or scientific credentials, let alone an audience that is likely to be interested? What are you offering to these students?

Good question. We will be judging all the projects and displaying all or as many as possible.
I'm talking to the committee about 1st place gets to speak(present) at next year's conference.

2nd place will get a resource prize. A full pack of BMP books or ISA study guide or something similar.

As well we are looking into linking a research library site that all the works can be found on to our ISA chapter's site as well as publication in the 'Ontario Arborists' magazine, bio on them and the project. Conference passes as well.

Still just trying to get this on it's feet so rewards, etc aren't firm or limited this is our start point.

 

[mrtree]

That is very funny, you are going to have a bunch of tree cutters judge the work of university graduates. Hope you all brush up on your ordination analysis and genetic sequencing techniques.

 

[KevinS]

This is a valuable medium not only for students but arborists who do work outside the box. Done at ISA International and would indeed be valuable at chapter conferences. No reason to limit the input.

Guy, I see your point about this but this program was specifically aimed at students there are other call for papers that go out to the crowd you're mentioning

 

[KevinS]

That is very funny, you are going to have a bunch of tree cutters judge the work of university graduates. Hope you all brush up on your ordination analysis and genetic sequencing techniques.

We have proffesers and others much more qualified than myself to judge.

Do you have a better suggestion on how it could work? I'd be interested in hearing it

 

[guymayor]

Guy, I see your point about this but this program was specifically aimed at students there are other call for papers that go out to the crowd you're mentioning

We're all students; why deny working arbs the chance to submit a poster? You don't deny U folk a chance to submit a proposal do you?

mrtree, I had the honor a few years back to present to ISAO. The last talk was 2 1/2 hours long on root management. Over 100 stuck it through some challenging content. Several taught me a thing or two with questions--and answers!
Dissing attendees as 'tree cutters' unfit to judge what works for this industry is ill-informed disrespect.

We don't need this kind of classist divisiveness in the industry. You might consider apologizing.

 

[KevinS]

We're all students; why deny working arbs the chance to submit a poster? You don't deny U folk a chance to submit a proposal do you?

mrtree, I had the honor a few years back to present to ISAO. The last talk was 2 1/2 hours long on root management. Over 100 stuck it through some challenging content. Several taught me a thing or two with questions--and answers!
Dissing attendees as 'tree cutters' unfit to judge what works for this industry is ill-informed disrespect.

We don't need this kind of classist divisiveness in the industry. You might consider apologizing.

Guy we aren't classist we have calls for papers for industry folks of all sorts. We are trying to broaden our reach of new ideas by giving students a chance as well. So we're including students not excluding arbs

 

[mrtree]

Kevin I think you missed something, he is calling me classist because I very much doubt many arborists are reading nature

 

[colb]

I've been exiting academia for the last six years and finally went full time with my business this past June. All of these tensions being described are natural, and valid from my experience. The way they're being expressed in this thread is, in some cases, impolite, but also spot-on.

Perhaps re-branding this effort as "translational research" might help attract the academia types, and create an environment where practical experience can meet high-end data science. Also, a mix of judges from academia and industry might be useful because we know what is most beneficial to an end user, and the academic types are better at evaluating a scientist's ingenuity.

It is a true opportunity to offer awards for posters, and speaking opportunities - those can look great on the CV of an up-and-coming scientist, depending on the context. The stronger the link is to academia, the better this proposition is. The stronger the link to industry, the worse it is, because the scientist will be seen as "bought" instead of "objective", for whatever those terms are worth.

The ISA has ties to both academia and industry, so you might consider marketing the translational capacity of your event, and get local university sponsorship to emphasize that.

Hth,
Jon

 

[KevinS]

Kevin I think you missed something, he is calling me classist because I very much doubt many arborists are reading nature

We have researches, college, university profs and other academicly sound people to judge it's not just a luck of the draw raffle

 

[KevinS]

If I did open this call for posters to the 'general public ' should there be an interest from the buzz crowd? It can be for any topic relevant to the arb industry. Bringing some of the 'fringe' ideas out for more people to see would be nice to see

 

[treehumper]

Have you got the by in from the faculty of the respective depts? I see where mrtree is coming from and it's not classist but simply reality. They need to see the value in making the effort to present this to what might not be considered an obvious audience for their thesis work. In many ways it could be perceived as additional effort to translate their work to a audience that differs from the original intended audience.

There have been some excellent presentations given at our local chapter conference on topics that could be considered beyond the scope of the typical conference attendee but, the turn out and rapt attention belies that. The important part though was the ability of the speaker to target the material to the audience, i.e., non-academics with limited technical knowledge. There are certainly audience members that are above this level but the majority were not.

Work with the professors and deans to make this appeal to the students.

 

[colb]

If I did open this call for posters to the 'general public ' should there be an interest from the buzz crowd? It can be for any topic relevant to the arb industry. Bringing some of the 'fringe' ideas out for more people to see would be nice to see

Where's the $$$ or benefit in it? Academia isn't altruistic. We shouldn't be either.

 

[guymayor]

There's some $ presenting posters at ISA Intl. But putting one together is not about the money. The benefit is sharing ideas, and your work. I've learned a lot from the feedback, and enjoy the conversations.
Redtree here went from putting up pics on a poster board to presenting.

Rare to disagree with th, but MS students are not grievously inconvenienced in the effort. My son just got his, and adding a poster to all the other work would be trivial.
But it's rare that tree care is in a thesis; so many these days are more about sociology. Zzzzzz...