2025 Exhibition and People’s Choice Voting
Every year, as we prepare for the annual Image of Research exhibition, we are amazed at the diversity and beauty of graduate student research on our campus.
We invite you to explore the online exhibition and vote for your three favorites. Your votes will determine the People’s Choice winner ($100 award). Voting closes Friday, April 11.
The exhibition will also be on display on the second floor of the Graduate College during Graduate Student Appreciation Week (April 7-11). Stop by anytime between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. during the week to see them in person.
Dates
Competition opens: Sunday, December 15, 2024
Deadline to enter: Monday, January 27, 2025
Online People Choice Voting closes: April 11
Announcement of winners: Monday, April 14
Eligibility:
Any graduate or professional student who was registered during the Fall 2023 term at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (online or on-campus) and is in good academic standing. Only one entry is allowed per year per person. Individual entries only please.
Criteria:
An Image of Research entry is comprised of an image, a brief written narrative, and a title.
The image can represent your work either concretely or abstractly. Perhaps it is an image of your research itself, an activity related to your research, or the impact of your research. We define “research” broadly to include the breadth of creative and scholarly work in all fields. For size and format requirements, see below.
Note about entries using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the composition: All imagery that is generated by AI either in its entirety or in portion without citation or explanation, will be automatically disqualified. Compositions with a topic of Artificial Intelligence that use and also cite use of AI, will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The purpose of the brief narrative is to articulate an aspect of your research that is important to you. This is a great opportunity to talk about your work creatively, offer a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes, share the experience of conducting the research, or express how it has impacted you or others. The text should not be merely a description of the image. It is not meant to be a caption.
The submission will be judged on three criteria:
- Originality
- Visual Impact
- Connection between image, text, and research
- Clarity of writing
Awards:
A subset of submissions will be selected by judges as the semi-finalists. Of these, the following 4 awards will be given.
- First prize: $500
- Second prize: $300
- Third prize: $200
- Honorable mention: $100
- People’s Choice award: $100
Awards to graduate students will be dispersed as professional development travel funds through the student’s university account. Awards may be subject to tax withholding.