VSS 2022 – May 13-18
St. Pete Beach, Florida

VSS 2023 – May 19-24
St. Pete Beach, Florida

The City of St. Pete Beach is a barrier island community located just off the mainland of Saint Petersburg, just south of Treasure Island, and 20 miles from Clearwater Beach. With miles of pristine, white sandy beaches, year-round sunshine, an abundance of recreational opportunities, restaurants, and shopping, St. Pete Beach is among the most enjoyable places to live and vacation in the world.

Visitors come to St. Pete Beach for that classic beach experience…walk down the beach and you’ll find not only swimming and boogie boarding, but people flying kites, playing Frisbee, and building sand castles as well.

Clearwater Beach

Fort De Soto Park

St. Pete Beach is a short 15 minute drive from the city of St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg you can take in a Tampa Bay Rays game, browse through world class museums including the new Salvador Dali Museum, or stroll along streets lined with graceful Mediterranean-style architecture. Whatever your taste, St. Petersburg offers you everything under the sun.

Salvador Dali Museum

Downtown St. Petersburg

Things to do in and around St. Pete Beach area

Take a Break at Fort De Soto Park – Engage in bird watching, spot dolphins from the fishing pier, enjoy some fishing, paddling or hiking, or explore a historic fort. The beach at Fort De Soto Park (just a few miles south of St. Pete Beach) was named TripAdvisor’s #1 beach in the country in 2008 and 2009. The park has a shallow protected lagoon ideal for swimming and offers many recreational activities such as fishing, hiking, kayaking, shelling, birding and camping.

Visit Caladesi Island State Park– Accessible only by private boat or ferry, Caladesi Island is undeveloped and free of crowds. Besides the serene beach and clear water, there are nature trails, kayak rentals and beach cabanas for rent.

Do a Beach Bar Crawl – Three of the more popular beach bars in the area can be found right on St. Pete Beach:

• Jimmy B’s Beach Bar at the Beachcomber– Enjoy a cool cocktail and live music at sunset.
• The UnderTow– Fun specialty drinks can be found at this popular beach bar.
• Woody’s Waterfront Café & Beach Bar– Enjoy Happy Hour seven days a week at this retro-style beach bar.

Sail the Intercoastal – Starlite Cruises sails up and down the Intercoastal Waterway.

Take a Thrill Ride on the Sea Screamer – The Sea Screamer in Clearwater is a fun and exciting family attraction – guaranteed to see dolphins!

Visit a neighboring beach – Like Pass-A-Grille Beach – tucked-away at the southern tip of St. Pete Beach, known for its laid back feel. It is the perfect place to watch the sunset. Or Clearwater Beach – Fodor’s Best Family Beach of 2007 – buzzing with beach activities by day and a sunset festival each night at Pier 60.

Stroll & shop Johns Pass – Johns Pass is a quaint turn-of-the-century fishing village with over 100 merchants, restaurants and water activities, including parasailing, jet skiing, dolphin watching, shelling tours and boat rentals.

Theme Parks & Aquariums in the St. Petersburg Area

• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
• Adventure Island
• Clearwater Marine Aquarium
• Big Cat Rescue

Public Transportation

SunRunner – The SunRunner is an easy way to get from Beach to “Burg and anywhere in between. The SunRunner is PSTA’s new Bus Rapid Transit service – the first of its kind in Tampa Bay. Cruising past traffic in its own lane, the SunRunner gets you where you need to go with no parking hassles. There is a stop at the TradeWinds Resort and fares are $2.25/ride (fares subject to change). See the SunRunner website for more information including contactless pay optiions (cash is not accepted), hours, schedule, stops, accessibility, reduced fares and more.The SunRunner complements the Central Avenue Trolley with similar routes, but the SunRunner moves more quickly in its own designated lane. The Central Avenue Trolley stops more frequently with destinations in between SunRunner stations. The SunRunner does not accept cash like the Central Ave Trolley.
Suncoast Beach Trolley – Hop on the Suncoast Beach Trolley and you can explore all of the unique beach communities from its beginning at Park Street Terminal in downtown Clearwater to 75th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard. Check out the shops on Corey Avenue, enjoy the sights at John’s Pass Village, or just take in a beautiful sunset. Look for special trolley bus stop signs located frequently along the route. A bus stop is located directly outside the TradeWinds Resort. In addition to the services along Gulf Boulevard, connector routes run between the coast and downtown St. Petersburg. Click here for the Suncoast Beach Trolley schedule. Exact fare is required at $2.25/ride (fares subject to change).
Central Avenue Trolley – The Central Avenue Trolley serves Central Avenue from The Pier in downtown St. Petersburg to Pass-A-Grille on St. Pete Beach. The Central Avenue Trolley features a multi-zone fare system that offers free transport between the Pier and BayWalk. Rides between BayWalk and PSTA’s Grand Central Station cost 50¢ and normal PSTA fares ($2.25/ride) will apply between Grand Central Station and Pass-a-Grille/St. Pete Beach (fares subject to change).
The Downtown Looper– The St. Petersburg Trolley Downtown Looper route connects you to all the city’s major museums and attractions. Downtown St. Petersburg is a cultural hub that is booming with culinary experiences, shops, museums and more! The Looper’s 15-20 minute service runs around downtown seven days a week and is always free of charge (fares to change).

A system map and more information can be found on the PSTA website.

Local Dining

See the list of St. Pete Beach restaurants and bars and dining in the surrounding communities.

VSS is seeking outstanding creative visual images for the 2022 meeting. There are two separate graphics competitions: the Program Cover and Website Banner Competition and the T-Shirt Design Competition.

The winning image of the Program Cover and Website Banner Competition will be used for the program covers, website banner, onsite signage, PowerPoint slides, bulk emails, printed materials, and other places where needed.

The winning image of the T-Shirt Design Competition will be used on the VSS 2022 T-shirt and may also be used for other purposes, such as tote bags, pens, hats, and mugs/water bottles.

You may submit more than one image for consideration and you are allowed to enter images in both competitions. You may submit the same image to both competitions as long as the file format requirements can be met.

Images may be related to scientific content, the Vision Sciences Society, or St. Pete Beach and the surrounding area. The image may include the VSS logo or be an alteration of the VSS logo.

The winner of each competition grants VSS unlimited rights to copy, publish, edit, print, and use the images for any purpose, including publishing images online and on other electronic and hard-copy media.

Winning images are chosen by a vote of the VSS Board of Directors. Winners will notified by September 30, 2021.

Submissions for Program Cover and Website Banner Competition must be received no later than September 13, 2021.
Submissions for the T-Shirt Design Competition must be received no later than January 6, 2022.
You must be a current VSS member to submit an image for consideration.

Program Cover and Website Banner Competition

The Program Cover and Website Banner Competition is a contest to select an image that will serve as the brand, or theme, of the annual meeting by providing imagery that will be used throughout the VSS meeting. Although the winning image will be used for many purposes, to enter the competition you need to submit only a proposed Program cover design. Other items will be created using variations of the winning cover design.

The submitted image must be a full-color raster image that is appropriate for printing on paper and for use in electronic media.

Your submitted program cover design must be a single wrap-around image of the front cover (8.5″ wide by 11″ high), the spine (1/4″ wide), and the back cover; thereby making the overall dimensions of the PDF 17.25″ wide by 11″ high.

The program cover and spine should display the society name “Vision Sciences Society” or “VSS”, the year “2022”, and the word “Program”. The cover can optionally include other information, such as the meeting dates, location, or VSS logo.

To enter the Program Cover and Website Banner Competition, please submit a single-page PDF of your proposed design depicting the front cover, spine, and back cover in a single image.

If your image is chosen as the winning design, you will be asked to provide your image in a print-ready format of at least 300 dpi with a 1/4″ bleed on all sides.

The competition winner will also be asked to create a website banner image matching the style of the program cover design. You do not have to create the website banner to enter the competition, but you may want to give some thought as to how your cover design can be altered to produce a 1450 pixel by 200 pixel banner image that will replace the 2021 banner on the VSS website.

The winner of the Program Cover Competition will be awarded $600 USD and will be recognized in the meeting program, on the meeting website, and at the Awards session at the VSS meeting.

Deadline to submit an image for the Program Cover and Website Banner Competition is September 13, 2021.
You must be a current member to submit an image.

View Previous Program Covers

T-Shirt Design Competition

The T-Shirt Design Competition is a contest to select an image for the VSS t-shirt. The image may also be used on other items that require line art.

Two images are needed for the t-shirt: one for the back and one for the breast. The maximum print area for the back image is approximately 11 inches square; the breast image print area is 3″ square. You can submit one image for both purposes or separate images.

The images should include at least the name and year of the meeting (eg: VSS 2022), but may also include other information, such as the meeting dates and location.

T-shirts are printed using a silkscreen process, so the image must be line art that uses spot colors (solid colors, not composite colors) and uses a maximum of four colors. Large areas of solid colors are discouraged as these are more difficult to print and result in an image with a plastic feel that is not comfortable to wear.

To enter the T-Shirt Design Competition, please submit a PDF of your proposed design showing your images as they would appear on a white background and a black background.

If your image is chosen as the winning design, you will be asked to provide your artwork in a scalable vector graphic file, such as Adobe Illustrator or compatible.

The winner of the T-Shirt Design Competition will be awarded $400 USD and will be recognized in the meeting program, on the meeting website, and at the Awards session at the VSS meeting.

Deadline to submit an image for the T-shirt Design Competition is January 6, 2022.
You must be a current member to submit an image.

View Previous T-shirt Designs

How To Enter

Images submitted for judging must be in PDF format. Each submission should be a separate PDF file.

Email your PDF to as an attachment. One email per submission, please. Specify which competition you are entering. You may optionally include a brief description of your image that the board will consider when reviewing the submitted images.

Schedule
Deadline to submit an image for Program Cover and Website Banner Competition: September 13, 2021
Program cover image chosen: by September 30, 2021
Deadline to submit an image for T-shirt Design Competition: January 6, 2022
T-shirt image chosen: by January 31, 2022

Saturday, May 22, 2021, 12:00 – 12:30 PM EDT
Monday, May 24, 2021, 9:00 – 9:30 AM EDT

Organizer: Chase Anderson
Speaker: Chase Anderson, Eyeware

Until recently, eye tracking research has been limited due to intrusive headgear or expensive sensors. This has restricted the ability of vision researchers to conduct studies at scale and within their budgets.

During this event, we’ll discuss how Eyeware has overcome these challenges with GazeSense. This software uses consumer-grade 3D cameras to offer robust eye tracking data which can be exposed live via an API or in CSV format for later analysis. By using depth & RGB information, Gazesense can maintain reliable tracking better than traditional 2D trackers over extended periods of time.

We will also be introducing Beam, which enables an iPhone to be used as an eye tracking device. Beam takes advantage of the True Depth, user-facing cameras on any iPhone with Face ID. This new development allows vision researchers to run eye tracking experiments remotely, at scale, and provides access to the data.

To learn more about our mission, visit Eyeware.tech or contact us at .

We hope to see you at the satellite event!

Monday, May 24, 2021, 4:15 – 6:15 PM EDT
Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 8:30 – 10:30 AM EDT

Organizer: Dirk Bernhardt-Walther, University of Toronto
Speakers: Jessica Witt, Colorado State University; Benjamin Balas, North Dakota State University; Michelle Greene, Bates College; Michael Cohen, Amherst College; Dirk Bernhardt-Walther, University of Toronto

The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted instructors at universities and colleges into a new reality of online teaching. They had to rapidly adapt and innovate to adjust their proven classroom-based courses to the new reality of physically distant learning, with challenges to material delivery, student engagement, and student assessment. In this Satellite Event we will provide a forum for instructors teaching vision-related courses to exchange ideas, best practices, and materials. We will offer advice by experienced instructors on practical demonstrations that can be performed by students at home, student engagement in an online setting, open pedagogies in the online/hybrid realm, as well as incorporating online laboratory work in teaching vision-related courses. We will discuss ideas for bridging the gap between demonstrations and structured observations and the use of quantitative models for problem-solving in vision science courses. We invite the VSS community to participate in an open panel discussion to share their own experiences with teaching during the pandemic.

Jessica Witt Colorado State University Teaching a Sensation & Perception Lab On-Line

Benjamin Balas North Dakota State University Vision science on paper: Analog demos to support problem-solving in Sensation & Perception

Michelle Greene Bates College Disposing with the disposable assignment: the power of open pedagogies for transformational learning

Michael Cohen Amherst College Strategies for assessing student learning

Dirk Bernhardt-Walther University of Toronto Forging an active student community in a large, asynchronous course

Saturday, May 22, 2021, 9:15 – 10:15 AM EDT

Organizer: Dr. Sam Hutton, SR Research Ltd
Speaker: Dr. Sam Hutton, SR Research Ltd

Understanding the key determinants of eye tracking data quality is critical for researchers who want to maximize their ability to detect significant effects in gaze metrics and generate and report high quality, replicable data. However, the topic is something of a terminological minefield, with concepts such as “noise” and “resolution” being used to mean different things by different researchers and manufacturers. In this Satellite Event, SR Research staff will discuss the key determinants of eye tracking data quality, and provide clear instructions for how critical data quality metrics such as accuracy and precision can be derived from EyeLink data. The workshop will also describe a range of tips and tricks that attendees can use to ensure they maximize data quality in their own EyeLink systems – from optimizing camera and participant set-up, to choosing the most appropriate calibration model. The overall aim of the event is to provide EyeLink users with the tools they need to measure and report eye tracking data quality, and to help them ensure that they are using their equipment optimally.

The following SR Research Webinar contains some useful background information: How EyeLinks Work.

For a list of other webinars and many other useful learning resources, please visit the SR Research Support Forum or the Learning Resources page on our website.

Friday, May 21, 2021, 2:00 – 3:30 PM EDT

Organizers: Charisse Pickron, University of Minnesota; Alejandro Lleras, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Mentoring Envisioned project is being developed by the members of FoVea, Visibility, and SPARK, to facilitate networking and mentoring opportunities for all members of the VSS community. The first half of the event will feature a panel discussion on mentoring (sponsored by FoVea) and the second half will include small group discussions of our newly launched Mentoring Envisioned SLACK channel, which will be open to all VSS members who are interested in building community and further developing connections both through affinity groups and through scientific interests.  We hope the SLACK channel and mentoring event will foster new connections that will help participants, especially those new to VSS, navigate the meeting, network, and will provide strong social support for members of underrepresented groups in the society.

Monday, May 24, 2021, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT

Organizers: Alex White, Barnard College; Michael Grubb, Trinity College

LGBTQ students are disproportionately likely to drop out of science early. Potential causes include the lack of visible role models and the absence of a strong community. This virtual gathering is one small step towards filling that gap. We will form a network of support and discuss continuing challenges for queer scientists and for gay rights generally (e.g., LGBT people are not protected against employment discrimination in the majority of the United States, an issue currently before the US Congress). This year we will have a special guest speaker who is very active in promoting the interests of LGBTQ+ scientists nationally. All are welcome.