CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.—ABB Optical Group, in partnership with Paragon Vision Sciences, announced that it is accepting abstracts for the fourth annual Optometry Student Challenge. The Optometry Student Challenge will award travel grants of $1,500 each including the cost of the conference to three third of fourth year-students to attend the Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) and present a scientific poster on a topic related to contact lenses. Additionally, the two runner-ups will receive honorable mention prizes of $250 each. “We recognize the importance of fostering the study of contact lenses to the future of vision care, said Ann Shackelford, director of consultation and specialty services at ABB Optical Group. “This challenge provides students with a great opportunity to further develop their research skills and present relevant, contact lens-related topics at one of the industry’s most important conferences – the GSLS.”

The 2019 Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) will be held Jan. 24 to 27 in Las Vegas.

Third and fourth-year students who are interested in participating must register by Tuesday, July 31 and must then submit an abstract on their proposed poster topic by Wednesday, Oct. 15. The abstracts must focus on study projects or student-based case histories related to contact lenses. Five finalists will be selected and notified by Oct.31.

Once selected, the finalists will then be required to convert their abstracts into scientific posters for further judging. The posters must be submitted in digital, PDF format to ABB Optical Group no later than Nov. 21. Only digital files will be accepted.

Judges will then select the top three posters by Dec. 1.

Paragon Vision Sciences president Rich Jefferies said, “We are honored to partner with ABB Optical on supporting the optometrists of tomorrow and encouraging these future leaders to further pursue the study of contact lenses. Programs like the Optometry Student Challenge are critical to the continued success of the optical industry.”

For more information on the Optometry Student Challenge, including full contest rules and guidelines, visit ABBOptical.com/OptometryStudentChallenge.