Student Poster Session Competition

Submission Deadline: NOW CLOSED

The 52nd International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA) invite community college, undergraduate and graduate students to participate in this year’s student poster contest. This program is established to (1) foster exchanges between the academia world and the failure analysis engineering community, (2) provide students an opportunity to gain exposure to failure analysis within the microelectronics sector and to network with professionals and peers in the field. 

ISTFA is the premier microelectronics/semiconductor failure analysis conference in North America, which will be held in the San Antonio, TX Convention Center from October 4-8, 2026. Please be sure to read the following instructions.  

ENTRY GUIDELINES 
Student(s) are required to submit an abstract on any topic related to semiconductor industry, including but not limited to microelectronics, 3D packaging, wafer level packaging, MEMS, materials characterization, quality and reliability, electrical, physical diagnosis, microscopy, or analysis of microelectronic/semiconductor or nanoscale circuits, systems, and devices. 

Student participating the contest is required to have a faculty advisor or an industry mentor to participate to the contest. Once accepted, a student must be able to present at the ISTFA 2026 conference for the competition. Otherwise, they will be disqualified. 

Student(s) who have scheduled for an oral presentation in ISTFA 2026 can also participate in the student poster contest. 

RULES & REQUIREMENTS 
The author is required to submit an abstract of no more than 150 words by 11:59 PM Eastern on September 4 of 2026, to be considered for entry. Submit your abstract through the button above. The author will be notified regarding their eligibility to participate in the contest. 

The poster dimension should not exceed 45” x 45” inch (114.3 cm x 114.cm) space. Poster(s) that exceed this dimension may be disqualified from the poster contest. There is no specific guidelines on the poster format nor the style of oral presentations. Nevertheless, we encourage student participant(s) to encourage the poster presentation to be no more than 5 minutes. 

CODE OF CONDUCT  
Anyone outside of the team, including the Team Advisor, may not participate in the oral presentations and should not be involved in the creation of any presentation outside of a review capacity. 

Any outside help must be properly cited within the presentation (i.e. industry professional used as a consultant or reviewer). Lack of proper citations may lead to disqualification from the competition. 

FORMAT OF COMPETITION / SCORING 
The contest will be scored on a rigid numeric scale holistically based on several categories: presentation aesthetic, scientific merit, oral presentation and technical relevance. If multiple students share the same score, judges reserve the rights to select the winner(s).   

BENEFITS & AWARDS 
First place will receive a $100 Gift card, second place will receive a $50 Gift card. There must be a minimum of 5 entries within the contest to award prizes. Each participating student will receive a participation certificate. Student authors will be given complementary access to a full day of the conference technical programming on Wednesday, October 7th. Free lunch will be provided at the expo hall, which brings together the largest number of companies providing material characterization and failure analysis tools and services in the country. 

Participation in this student poster contest will provide students FREE opportunity to: 

• Networking with professionals from academia and Semiconductor Industry 

• Expanding knowledge about microelectronics by attending technical sessions 

• Exploring career opportunities in the fast-growing semiconductor industry 

• Developing presentation and communication skills 

Note: Posters should be brought to the event. Printing is not available on-site.

ISTFA 2026 is pleased to offer a complimentary one-day pass for students to attend on Wednesday, October 7, 2026. The pass includes access to the technical program, Expo Hall, and lunch on Wednesday. Students interested in participating should contact Kathy Murray at [email protected].

EDFAS Career Connections

Looking for career opportunities while you’re at ISTFA 2026? Take advantage of EDFAS Career Connections, which gives students and job seekers the opportunity to connect directly with exhibiting organizations that are actively hiring. 

Participating organizations will be identified in the ISTFA 2026 conference app, making it easy to find them and connect on the show floor.

No additional registration is required as participation is included with your ISTFA 2026 conference registration.