Information for Judges
Serving as a judge in the Graduate Exhibition is an excellent way to learn about research and creative scholarship happening through the University while helping students build their communication skills. For the video category, judging can be done online remotely. For the other categories, judging takes place in person.
Ready to be a part of the Graduate Exhibition?
Any member of the Penn State community that is interested in judging the 2024 Graduate Exhibition can register at the below link. You can also view registration deadlines on the Graduate Exhibition schedule page.
How Judging Works at the Exhibition
Judges will be emailed with assignments and instructions several days before the Exhibition. Each category has its own judging criteria, and we encourage judges to view the rubrics beforehand to prepare. For all categories except Performance, judging is assigned at random. The presentations are purposefully intended for a general audience. Please keep this in mind if you are an expert in the field of one of the exhibits you are judging.
Guidance for Judges
To make sure that your feedback to students is beneficial, we encourage all judges to be curious, be open, be respectful, and be constructive. Graduate students have spent months or years developing the projects and performances that they are presenting. They are also learning to communicate technical and scientific ideas to a general audience, which can be challenging. Our goal is to make the Graduate Exhibition a comfortable and safe space in which graduate students can share about their work and gain new perspectives from the judges.
Remember that all Exhibition attendees—presenters, judges, and others—are expected to uphold Penn State's values, which include integrity, respect, responsibility, discovery, excellence, and community.
7:00–9:00 p.m., Friday, March 22, 2024
The Recital Hall, Penn State’s University Park Campus
Join us and serve as a judge for a delightful evening of music from Penn State’s talented School of Music graduate students. Judges will evaluate all performances using paper evaluation forms that will be provided at the event, and they will be turned in at the end of the performances. Judges will also receive guidance before the performances begin.
Deadlines:
- January 16: Judging registration is open.
- March 17: Deadline to register as a judge for the performance category
- 9:00 p.m., March 22: Deadline to hand in paper evaluations for Performance category
1:00–4:00 p.m., Friday, March 22, 2024
HUB-Robeson Center, Penn State’s University Park Campus
- Presentations are assigned to judges at random and may come from the research poster, design, and/or visual arts categories.
- If you cannot attend at 1:00 p.m., you may still be a judge; however, you must check in by 2:30 p.m. to ensure you have time to hear and evaluate your assigned presentations.
- Judges will complete an online evaluation for each assigned presentation, which can be completed with a laptop, phone, or other mobile device. Several iPads or laptops will be available for judges.
- January 16: Judging registration opens
- March 17: Deadline to register for design, research poster, and visual arts categories
- 6:00 p.m., March 22: Deadline to submit evaluations for Design, Research Poster, and Visual Arts categories
Video judging will take place online from March 18-22, 2024
Deadlines
- January 16: Registration opens
- March 10: Deadline to register for video category
- March 18–22: Videos viewable online for evaluation (video category only)
- 6:00 p.m., March 22: Deadline to submit evaluations for Video category
Judging Criteria for Categories and Awards
- Design
- Performance
- Research Presentation
- Video
- Visual Arts
- Data Visualization Award (see also: Data Visualization Judging Guide)
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award
Contact
Those that are interested in judging but have questions can reach out to the Graduate Exhibition committee at exhibition@psu.edu.