Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Students and their professors from universities around the globe were invited to participate with engineers, scientists and practitioners from the graphic arts industry in the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) Annual Technical Conference, its 63rd, held March 6–8 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Each year, the association invites members of its 14 global student chapters to compete for honors to be awarded to individual undergraduate and graduate students for achievements of technical excellence, as well as a grand prize awarded to an institution. The awards ceremony is held during a banquet at the end of three days of intense technical presentations from industry luminaries and exciting keynotes from inside and outside the industry.

Participating in the TAGA competition this year were students from Ball State University, California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, Grenoble Institute of Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, Ryerson University, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and Western Michigan University.

Individual students have the opportunity to win the Harvey R. Levenson Student Paper Award and the Dusty Rhodes Graduate Student Paper Award, respectively. This year the undergraduate award went to Ruth Tupe, Rama Luksiarto, and Marianna Kosterina of Ryerson University.

The chapters themselves compete by creating exciting student journals, typically beautifully bound with color graphics and high-end finishing choices, demonstrating their technical skills and creativity in print. In addition to displaying manufacturing prowess, the journals showcase student papers, which are usually extremely interesting and highly technical. The journals characterize the high level of graphic arts education the TAGA students are receiving at the institutions they attend.

This year TAGA's highest honor, the Helmut Kipphan Student Publication Award was bestowed upon Rochester Institute of Technology by Martin Habekost, TAGA's VP of Education. Previous winners of the travelling cup include Ryerson University in 2010, Rochester Institute of Technology in 2009, Ryerson University in 2008, and California Polytechnic State University in 2007.

"The quality of this year's journals and the submitted papers was outstanding," said Alexandra Pekarovicova, TAGA Vice President, Technical Papers and professor at Western Michigan University. "The panel of judges, representing industry and academia had a difficult time choosing the winners. It is a great tribute to the institutions, the chapter advisors and all of the professors, as much as it is to the students themselves."

Beyond the awards, the technical conference is an action-packed three days including sessions presenting white papers; focus sessions; presentation of student chapter journals; poster papers; and presentation of the Bruno Award and Student Publication Awards. The annual TAGA Proceedings, derived from presented papers, are published and made available to members and for purchase through the TAGA web site at www.taga.org.

Next year's technical conference is March 18–21, 2012:

Hyatt Regency Jacksonville-Riverfront
225 E Coastline Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32202

For detailed information about becoming an individual member of TAGA--which is only $125 per year for a full professional membership--about sponsoring student activities at next year's conference, or regarding joining industry leading companies like Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; Eastman Kodak Company; EFI, Inc.; FineEye Color Solutions; Flint Group; manroland Inc. North America; mimeo.com; Printing Industries of America; and Sappi Fine Paper as a corporate sponsors, contact TAGA Administrator, Jessica Meyers at [email protected].