Description
Application Process
Student Paper Competition Winners
Description
Each year CORS conducts a student paper competition to recognize the contribution of a paper either directly to the field of operational research through the development of methodology or to another field through the application of operational research. The competition serves to showcase the high quality of OR education in Canada as well as the excellence of the new generation of operational researchers. Prizes are awarded in two categories: Undergraduate and Open.
Requirements
The applicant must be enrolled as a full-time student in a Canadian institution, in an undergraduate, masters, or PhD program during the school year 2024–2025. Canadians who are studying outside of Canada are also eligible. Papers for which all applicants are undergraduates may be submitted to either category: Open or Undergraduate, but not to both. Papers for which some authors are graduate students must be submitted to the Open category. MBA students (and other specialized master students) must submit to the Open category with their applied projects. Published papers are eligible for the competition only if their initial submission date (for publication) is after the previous year's CORS Annual Conference.
Supervisors and industry partners may appear as coauthors on the paper, but the first authors must be the applicants. The applicants must have made substantial contribution to the project and have written the paper with only minor editorial assistance. If the paper includes such non-student authors, the supervisor should include information about the roles of the various authors when confirming the eligibility of the students.
Application Process
Application Deadline: 24 March 2025
The application process will be confirmed in early February and shared via the CORS Mailing List and on the CORS website.
Open Category Chair
Undergraduate Category Chair
All competitors should apply for CORS student funding by the deadline in case they become a finalist.
Entry Requirements
- Abstract of 200 words or less. Author's name, address, and email address. Make sure the abstract clearly highlights the motivation, contribution, and potential impact of the paper.
- Academic institution and supervisor's name, if applicable.
- Note that papers selected as finalists must be presented at the conference to further be considered for first prize or honourable mention.
- A PDF copy of the paper:
- No longer than 35 pages (with minimum 1-inch margins, maximum 34 lines per page, and minimum font size of Times 11) including all figures, tables, appendices, and references.
- The submitted paper must not contain any information identifying the authors or their institutions.
- An email from the supervisor attesting that the participant is indeed the first author of the article submitted to the competition must be sent to the competition chair. Supervisors must agree to be part of the competition's arbitration committee, which requires the evaluation of three competition documents in April. If this is not possible, the supervisor should designate an appropriate alternate member of the committee.
- The same paper can be submitted to multiple CORS paper competitions in the same year. However, it CANNOT be selected as finalist to multiple CORS paper competitions in the same academic year (either SIGs, Undergraduate Category, or Open Category). If a paper is selected as finalist by multiple competition committees, then the student has to decide in which competition the paper remains as finalist.
- Once a paper has been awarded as Winner or Runner Up in any CORS paper competition (either SIGs, Undergraduate Category, or Open Category), the same paper cannot be submitted again to a CORS paper competition.
Selection Criteria
- Contribution of the paper either directly to the field of operational research through the development of methodology or to another field through the application of operational research
- Originality
- Writing style, clarity, organization, and conciseness of the paper
Awards
- Prizes are awarded per paper. The cheque is sent to the first author, and allocation of prize money is up to the co-authors.
- Open Category: First Prize $500, Honorable Mention $100. One award per team.
- Undergraduate Category: First Prize $200, Honorable Mention $50. One award per team.
- All papers selected as finalists receive a certificate.
- If an undergraduate student wins the Open Competition, no undergraduate prize will be awarded. Honourable mentions will be provided if there is no winner.