The Spatial Analysis and Modeling (SAM) Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers is sponsoring a student paper competition at the 2012 AAG Meeting in New York, NY. The prizes will total a minimum of $1000.
The competition is open to all undergraduate and graduate students. Papers may be of a theoretical or applied nature. They will be judged on the following criteria: 1) potential contribution to the use of mathematical models, statistical techniques and other technological and computational approaches for analyzing spatial phenomena in any subfield of geography; 2) appropriate and sound use of methodology; 3) originality; and 4) organization and written composition of the paper.
Students wishing to enter the competition should submit the title and abstract of their paper to SAM Vice-Chair Fang Qiu (ffqiu@utdallas.edu) after registering to attend the 2012 AAG. Students should also include the PIN from their registration so that SAM can coordinate with the AAG to place competition papers into special sessions. The deadline to enter the competition is September 28, 2011. All students entering the competition must submit their completed papers in .doc or .pdf format to same e-mail address (ffqiu@utdallas.edu) by January 1, 2012.
The paper must be based on research primarily conducted while the student was at an accredited university. Each entrant must submit a statement with their completed paper from a university faculty member, preferably their undergraduate or graduate advisor, describing the role of the student in completing the paper. The entrant need not be a student at the time of the 2012 AAG meeting to enter the competition.
The title page of the submitted paper should include the name, current affiliation, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address of the entrant. The following page should include only the title of the paper and an abstract. No identifying information should appear anywhere else than on the title page of the paper. Papers should be no longer than 35 double-spaced pages, including tables, figures and references.
A panel of judges will review the papers before the AAG meeting. The judges will also evaluate student presentations. The winner(s), if any, will be announced at the SAM specialty group business meeting and at the AAG Awards Luncheon. Winners should make themselves available to attend the Luncheon. The judges' decision, including the possibility of not awarding a prize, is final.
2010 After evaluating on both the full papers and presentations, the SAM board decided to award Lina Cao (University of Utah) the first prize, and Xingjian Liu (Texas State University - San Marcos) and Woo Jang (University of Georgia) the second prize of graduate student awards. For the first time, SAM awarded a first place undergraduate student prize to Katherine Johnson (Stanford University).
2009
2008 The co-winners of the competition were: Yongwan Chun (University of Texas-Dallas; paper title: Modeling Network Autocorrelation within Migration Flows by Spatial Eigenvectors) and Jamison F. Conley (Pennsylvania State University; paper title: Using Moment Invariants to Analyze Cluster Shapes and Hypothesize Potential Causes). Second place in the competition went to: Neeti Neeti (Clark University; paper title: Modeling Trends in Phenological Curve Shape Properties Using AVHRR-NDVI Data).
2007 Qiang Cai from University of Iowa took 1st prize while the 2nd prize was shared by David Wheeler and Youngho Kim, both from Ohio State University.
2006 The 1st prize went to Jonathan Schroeder from University of Minnesota; the 2nd prize winner was Noah Goldstein from UC-Santa Barbara; and the 3rd prize winner was Soumya Mazumdar from University of Iowa.
2005 Eun-Hye Yoo from UCSB (1st place), and Eric Delmelle from SUNY-Buffalo and Richard Middelton from UCSB who tied for the 2nd place. Also, this year's winner for emerging scholar paper competition is: Ikuho Yamada from IUPUI.
2004
2003 There was a tie, so the winners this year were Changjoo Kim (graduate student in the Department of Geography at Ohio State University - "Infrastructure design and cost allocation in hub network") and Nicholas Nagle (graduate student in the Department of Geography at University of California at Santa Barbara - "A point-based regression analysis of industrial location").
2002 The winner this year was Kai Chi Leung (graduate student in the Department of Geography at Clark University) for his paper titled "Incorporation of spatial configuration in land allocation: a threshold approach."
2001 The SAM sponsored student paper competition and paper session had five entries. The winner of this competition was Sang-Il Lee (graduate student in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University) for his paper titled "Developing a bivariate spatial association measure: an extension of Moran's I."
2000
1999 The SG judges declined to award a prize in the student paper competition. The emerging scholar prize was awarded to Qing Shen (MIT) for his paper entitled "An approach to representing the spatial structure of the information society."
1998 This year's winner of the stutent paper competition is Peter Fellows, Syracuse University.
1997 This year's winners of the competition are Pat Pellegrini (Ohio State U., 1996 Ph.D. from SUNY/Buffalo) and Michael Tiefeldorf (Ph.D. student, Wilfrid Laurier U.).