Call for Student Submissions to our 2022 Design Showcase

February 23rd, 2022

DFP invites graduate students from UBC and beyond to submit their design-focused research to our annual DFP CREATE Design Showcase! This year we are using the popular web-conferencing software Gather Town to host our Showcase virtually. No more Zoom! This year's Showcase will be more interactive, engaging, and memorable than any of our past events; we hope you will join us.

When Is It?

Our Design Showcase has two elements: a 2-day asynchronous gallery where attendees can log on at any time and view submissions (without presenters), and a 3-hour live event. Both parts will be hosted on Gather Town.

Asynchronous Gallery: May 16 - 17 (all day)
Live Showcase: May 18 (12:00pm - 3:00pm, + Industry Social Hour)

Who May Submit

All graduate (Masters, PhD, Postdoc) students from UBC and beyond (SFU, Emily Carr, CDM, and all other universities!) are invited to submit their work. You are welcome to use posters designated for different events or works in progress. There is a maximum of one project per Principal Investigator (PI), unless the PI is a faculty member. Your project must have a human-centered design component.

Why Participate

  • This is a great opportunity to share your work with a large network of design enthusiasts 
  • Get a head start on creating a compelling portfolio piece
  • Cultivate more experience in presenting your work
  • There will be numerous cash prizes for top submissions
  • This year's Showcase is going to be seriously fun

Important Deadlines

NOI Deadline: Wednesday April 6th (midnight PST)

Students must submit their notice of intent (NOI) by Wednesday April 6th. You only need to include basic information in the NOI: tentative title, author(s), brief description of the work, and the main contact's email address. This will help our organizers with planning. You can submit your NOI by clicking the button below.

Submit Your NOI

Final Submission Deadline: Wednesday May 4th (midnight PST)

If you are part of a team of researchers, each of you needs to RSVP, but only one of you needs to submit the work. 

Submit Your Work (button coming soon)

Event Dates

Asynchronous Gallery: May 16-17, all day
Live Design Showcase Event: May 18, 12-3pm + Industry Social Hour
Presenters must log on at 11:30am on May 18. Students who do not log on at 11:30am will have their submission removed from the schedule.

How to Apply

We realize that having the Design Showcase online makes a big difference in how you can present your work. Instead of restricting you to a specific format, we are encouraging you to be creative. Use whatever format makes sense to you! Just make sure that it is accessible to viewers - they shouldn't have to create an account or pay a subscription in order to view it. 

For a Poster Submission, submit:

  • Poster, to be embedded into Gather Town. Either
    • a high resolution image (PNG format please), or
    • a link to where your poster is stored
  • Abstract (approx. 300 words)

For a Demo or Video Submission, submit:

  • Demo, to be embedded into Gather Town.
    • A link to your demo (which could be hosted on YouTube, Google Docs/Slides/etc, your own website, etc). 
  • Abstract (approx. 300 words)
What to Expect

This year we are thrilled to be hosting the Design Showcase entirely on Gather Town, a popular web-conferencing software program. Our team is working hard to make this year's Showcase much more interactive and engaging for both presenters and attendees. We plan to mimic a real-life / in-person conference: there's a big open room with rows of tables where students stand and present their poster or demo to passersby. Attendees wander around and stop at posters or demos that interest them, and start up a conversation with the presenter(s). The attendee might stick around for a few minutes asking questions, then move on to the next poster.

Using Gather Town, we will create a virtual room with rows of posters. As a presenter, you will have your own personalized avatar to move around (see image below).screenshot of gather town poster session

Attendees will move their avatars around the room. When an attendee moves close enough to you, their video will open so that you can communicate with them. When they walk away, their video/audio will disappear.

Our Design Showcase has two elements: a 2-day asynchronous gallery where attendees can log on at any time and view submissions (without presenters), and a 3-hour live event (with presenters). Both parts will be hosted on Gather Town, in the same virtual space.

Asynchronous Gallery May 16-17: During these two days, attendees will visit our Design Showcase virtual space on Gather Town to view your project. You are not expected to be online and engaging with the attendees at this point. Think of this portion of the Showcase as an art gallery, where projects are displayed and attendees arrive at any time during the day to browse through the submissions, then leave. This is also a great chance for you to view your peer's submissions! We will also have a prize for the attendee or participant who wins our Engagement Draw (details coming soon).

Live Design Showcase Event May 18, 12-4pm: On the day of the Live Design Showcase Event, all students who have submitted work are expected to log on at 11:30am to prepare. A facilitator will be there to help you test your equipment (audio, video, screenshare, etc) and to provide instructions. Students who do not log on at 11:30am will have their submission removed from the schedule.

The schedule is as follows:

11:30am: Presenters log on  to Gather Town and prepare.
12:00pm: Showcase begins. Welcome.
12:10pm: Current DFP students present their CPSC 554K projects.
12:50pm: Poster & Demo Session begins. This is when you will go stand by your poster/demo and prepare to interact with attendees who approach you.
1:50pm: DFP Alumni Panel
2:20pm: DFP Graduation Ceremony
2:40pm: Awards & Prizes
3:00pm: Industry Social Hour
4:00pm: Event ends.