Creation of academic & research posters gives the students an opportunity to develop indispensable skills like inquisitiveness, critical thinking, analytical thinking and dissemination of findings in creative way. This paper describes the formative use of poster presentation in a course of applied mathematics in the first year of the undergraduate engineering program in the western part of India. The authors have designed the internal assessment through poster presentation (IATPP) based on the ARCS model of motivation that also encourages students to find relevance of mathematics with other fields, seeds the foundation of research in their foundation years of engineering and develops a habit of self-learning and peer learning. The authors then discuss their experience of executing this novel approach of using poster presentation to bridge the gap between mathematics and core engineering courses through IATPP. Students’ perceptions and results have proved IATPP an interesting, engaging, encouraging, motivating and challenging online assessment strategy that exposes them to mathematical concepts, helps them relate mathematics with other fields and empowers them with several vital life-long learning skills.