Held on February 12, 2013, at the Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference (GTRIC), graduate students at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts participated in a special IAC component of the conference. The component consisted of special project presentation sessions and the first Ivan Allen College Paper Competition.

Andrew Quitmeyer, graduate student in the Digital Media program in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, won the Best Poster prize awarded by Campus Services at the evening ceremony capping the conference. View the poster here.

Through the IAC Paper Competition, three Ivan Allen graduate students were awarded $1,500 each in travel grants to support research travel for fieldwork or to present at other conferences:

• First place― Tong Zhao, PhD student in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, with the paper "Confidence-Building and Nuclear Arms Control between the U.S. and China: The Role and Limit of Epistemic Community."
• Second place― Emily Gibson, PhD student in the School of History, Technology, and Society, with the paper "The Hand that Rocked the Cradle Flies the Family's Plane Today: Feminism, Gender Roles, and the Rise of Commercial Aviation in the United States during the 1920s-1930s."
• Third place― Peter G. Westin, PhD student in the School of History, Technology, and Society, with the paper "Sparky, the Patriot, and Turbo-Diesels: The Relevance of Failed Motorsports Innovations in the History of Technology."

Graduate students on the IAC Graduate Student Advisory Board organized the paper conference, which was generously supported by the Dean's Office. IAC faculty members across units volunteered to evaluate the essays according to a scoring rubric developed by the students.

"Overall IAC interest in GTRIC was very impressive, especially given this being the first year for the paper competition," said John H. Miller, a graduate student in the School of History, Technology, and Society.

IAC graduate students presented their research in panels throughout GTRIC, while the posters were on display for faculty and graduate student judges in the Student Center ballroom.

"I am glad that I attended this conference and had the wonderful opportunity not only to present my own research but to get to know the extraordinary work done by my fellow students," said Zhao, the first place winner of the paper competition. "It has been a very rewarding experience, and I learned a lot from talking with professors and fellow students on some very interesting and innovative research topics."

IAC graduate students were grateful for the opportunity to present to their peers and faculty and to receive valuable feedback. Peter Westin described the IAC paper competition as "a great beginning to important cross-pollination of knowledge from multiple disciplines."