The Second Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Symposium, which was jointly sponsored by the NSF funded IGERT and Bridge to the Doctorate programs, was a great success as evidenced by the presentation of 72 student posters and the attendance of faculty advisors on Tuesday, April 05, 2006, at the USF Research Park. Altogether, 47 graduate students (IGERT and Bridge to the Doctorate fellows were ineligible to receive additional support) may receive support to present their cross-disciplinary research at national meetings. Guidelines for IGERT travel support are listed below:

1. All student participants must submit a two-page paper for publication in the symposium proceedings. It must be submitted in PDF format via e-mail to lchandr2@eng.usf.edu by April 20, 2006 to qualify for symposium travel awards.

2. Without exceptions, support will be awarded solely for students who are first authors on accepted conference papers to present (oral or poster format) at professional meetings (funding will not be provided to purchase research supplies, computers, software, books, equipment, tuition, stipends, etc). All travel requests must be submitted within one year of the award date (before April 5, 2007). In lieu of funding for students, travel support will not be provided to faculty advisors nor will funds be transferred to departmental E&G or faculty overhead accounts.

3. Travel support will not exceed $500 per student. Based upon policies established by the USF Travel Office, support may be provided for conference registration, airline travel, airport parking, airport transportation, ground transportation, car rental, hotel lodging, and/or per diem (meals).

4. Students are expected to formally request travel support by completing the IGERT travel grant application along with a USF travel authorization request, and must forward both to the IGERT program within two weeks of their conference start dates.

5. Conference papers, oral presentations, and/or posters must acknowledge travel support from the NSF IGERT Program Grant DGE 0221681 and the USF Office of Research (the IGERT program will not cover the costs related to the printing of conference posters). Student exhibitors are expected to forward the aforementioned documentation to the IGERT program office at least 5 days prior to the date of their conference.

6. Within 5 days after returning to USF, student exhibitors are required to provide all receipts (hotel, parking) along with a copy of the final conference agenda/program to the IGERT program and complete a USF Travel Expense Request (TER). For auditing purposes, TERs are required to document all university-related travel.

We strongly recommend that all students actively augment their IGERT travel awards by applying for supplemental support from professional societies/organizations and/or from USF Student Government Association via the Conference Presentation Grant Program (CPGP). Additional information regarding CPGP, including application materials can be found at http://www.gpsc.usf.edu/money.html.

Please note that support from other sources will not impact your IGERT travel award, however, we are required to document your achievements both to NSF and the USF Office of Research.

In closing, we are proud of your success, and have the utmost confidence that you will be an exemplary representative in disseminating the exciting research initiatives underway here at USF. Conference proceedings of student abstracts and papers will be available on-line in a month after April 20, 2006.

Once again, congratulations on your NSF IGERT travel award! Please contact me either at lchandr2@eng.usf.edu or at 396-9309 for any questions that you may have.