Awards

About the competition

Students who would like to display their work at the NACIS 2023 meeting should register for the Student Map and Poster Competition. We encourage all students to submit their maps and cartography-related technical or research posters for a chance at one of two $500 prizes!

There are two competition categories: cartographic design quality and cartographic research quality. There is no entry fee. All entrants will be displayed in the Map Gallery and the winners will be selected by a ballot of all meeting attendees.

Have a dynamic map instead? The NACIS Student Dynamic Map Competition is for you!

Registration and deadline

The deadline to submit is August 31, 2023 midnight (00:00) Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). To register, please fill out the form here.

Prizes

Meeting attendees will vote on the entrants and the winner will be selected by a tally of ballots. The winners will receive a prize of $500 each. Runners-up may receive honorable mentions. All first place and honorable mention maps will receive award certificates.

At least one high quality map must be received for each category to warrant awarding both prizes. If no high quality maps are received in one or both categories, judges can decide not to award a prize for the category.

Eligibility & rules

  • Maps, cartographic research posters, and other displays of cartography-related work qualify.
  • Entrants must have been enrolled in a certificate program, undergraduate, or graduate/post-graduate program during the 2022–2023 academic year.
  • Entries must have been created during the 2022–2023 academic year.
  • The competition is open to students from any country.
  • Entrants must not have previously won first prize in either of the categories of the Student Map and Poster Competition.
  • Students may enter as many times as they wish, but may only win one prize.
  • Entries must be submitted no later than August 31, 2023 midnight EDT.
  • Students may re-enter a map from a previous year’s competition provided the map has been improved in a significant way.
  • The cartographic work in these maps must be the original work of the entrant. The data, if not produced by the entrant, must be appropriately cited.
  • The maximum size of posters is 48″ wide x 36″ tall.
  • Students are responsible for ensuring their print poster arrives at the conference and is hung in the map gallery, at the instruction of the gallery coordinator.
  • Students must also provide a digital image for inclusion in the online gallery.
    • The digital image must be at least 300 dpi
    • File size may not exceed 20MB
    • PNG, PDF, or JPEG

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.