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Awards will be given at the 2025 SSC Annual Meeting for research presentations (oral or poster) made by students. Entries will be judged on the quality of both the presentation and the underlying research. The awards consist of a certificate and a cash prize. Some sections may award an honorable mention which will not get a certificate or cash prize.

1. Categories of Student Research Presentation Awards

In 2025, entrants for student research presentation awards must choose to enter one of the eight separate competitions: 

  • The Actuarial Science Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge presentations on theory and applications in actuarial science or quantitative finance as well as the general criteria. There will be one cash prize valued at \$500.00.
  • The Business and Industrial Statistics Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge business and industrial aspects of the work as well as the general criteria. There will be one cash prize valued at \$500.00.
  • The Data Science and Analytics Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge participants’ talks on the strength of their contributions to data science theory and applications, as well as on the general criteria.  There will be one cash prize valued at \$500.00.
  • The Probability Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge presentations on the probabilistic aspects of the work as well as the general criteria. There will be one cash prize valued at \$500.00.
  • The Survey Methods Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge will judge presentations on both theoretical and applied contributions to survey methods as well as the general criteria. There will be one cash prize valued at \$500.00.
  • The Biostatistics Section Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge presentations on the biostatistics aspects of the work broadly, including medical, environmental, ecological, agricultural, animal population and biological sciences as well as the general criteria. There will be two cash prizes valued at \$500 each.
  • The General Student Research Oral Presentation Award competition will judge presentations on the general criteria. There will be three cash prizes valued at \$500 each.
  • The Student Research Poster Presentation Award competition will judge presentations based on the poster competition criteria described below. There will be three cash prizes valued at \$500 each.

2. Eligibility

  • A student must NOT have defended their thesis nor completed their final degree (whether graduate or undergraduate, thesis-based or non-thesis-based) requirements by December 31, 2024.
  • A student has NOT accepted an invitation to give an Invited Talk at the 2025 SSC meeting.
  • The CSSC and SSC are two separate meetings, and registration for each is independent. Students are ONLY allowed to do an oral presentation in one conference and a poster presentation in the other using the same title/abstract. Presentations of the same format in both conferences are NOT permitted.
  • Students who submit only the summary but did not submit an abstract through the registration system are NOT eligible for the competition. Similarly, those who submitted an abstract but do not submit a summary are ineligible.
  • Presentations based on joint work with a senior colleague such as a supervisor are eligible, as long as the student presents the work. Joint presentations between two or more students are eligible.
  • Students from all countries are eligible to participate in the competition, provided they register and attend the conference in person.


3. Submission Requirements for the Award Competitions

  • Submit the abstract of the contributed paper or poster through the SSC meeting website on or before February 21, 2025 at 11:59 PM PDT;
  • Complete and submit the online form between February 1, 2025 and April 1, 2025. This form requires submission of a Graduation Status Confirmation Letter and a One-Page Research Summary and selecting among some options.
  • Graduation Status Confirmation Letter: A scanned letter on university letterhead from the supervisor, department chair or a similar authorized person confirming student status as of December 31, 2024
  • One-Page Research Summary: A one-page pdf file containing a Title, Author list with affiliations, 3 key words, and a summary of the research. You may choose to organize your summary into sections such as Motivation, Methods, Results, Conclusions). No references listing should be included, though you may include citations in author year format if desired. The summary should strictly follow the format: Times New Roman or Computer Modern (LaTeX), Font Size of 11, 1-inch margins, and single line-spacing. A summary with more than one-page will be ineligible
  • Option selection
    • Select up to two oral presentation sections from Actuarial Science Section, Business and Industrial Statistics Section, Data Science and Analytics Section, Probability Section, Survey Methods Section, Biostatistics Section, General Student. Your summary will be considered for these sections first.  However, in some cases, the committee reserves the right to allocate your oral presentation to a different section if it feels that the content of your summary more closely matches that section.
    • If your summary is not selected for an oral presentation section (part of the Student Research Presentation Award Competition), would you (1) like to make a standard oral contributed presentation (not part of the competition, ineligible for an award) or (2) participate in the poster research presentation award competition (which is part of the competition and eligible for a $500 award)?
    • Each student is eligible to win only one SSC Student Research Presentation Award per award category in the same degree program (e.g., BSc, MSc, or PhD). Past winners are not eligible to compete in the same award category again but may participate in other award categories. If you have previously won (excluding honorable mentions), please provide the following details: the year you won, your degree program (BSc, MSc, PhD), and the award category (Poster, Actuarial Science Section, Business and Industrial Statistics Section, Data Science and Analytics Section, Probability Section, Survey Methods Section, Biostatistics Section, or General Student).
    • Please confirm whether you have accepted an invitation to give an Invited Talk at the 2025 SSC meeting. Students who accept an invitation for an Invited Talk are not eligible for this competition.
  • Some notes for the submission
    • Please be sure to use the same student names and affiliations as those used in abstract submission.
    • Each student may submit only one summary for the competition. Subsequent entries will not be considered.
    • All presenters are required to register for the meeting at the time of abstract submission. The presenters are also responsible to pay their registration fees to attend the meeting.

4. Evaluation Criteria

Summary submissions will be selected for oral presentations based on the following criteria: Relevance/Importance of research/application (30%), Rigor, assessment, and novelty of proposed solution (50%) and Quality of writing (20%). The presenters will be notified by April 15, 2025 whether their summaries have been selected to compete or not.

Oral presentations will be assessed based on the following criteria: 

  • Research (25): Interest and importance of research; Originality of research; Difficulty and sophistication of methods; Student mastery of materials; Overall quality of research.
  • Delivery (25): Clarity and pace of presentation; Selection of materials from summary; Use of graphics; Ability to answer questions; Overall quality.
  • Section-specific competitions (10): Relevance to specific section area of the work.

Poster presentations will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Objectives and Results (5 points), Methods and Analysis (5 points), Discussion (5 points), Presentation (5 points), and Overall Impression (5 points).

Questions regarding the competitions can be directed to studentawards-chair@ssc.ca