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Parents Association Undergraduate Research Symposium

(formerly the Vice President’s University-wide Symposium)

Friday April 25, 2008

The Parents Association Undergraduate Research Symposium (formerly the Vice President’s University-wide Symposium) is an interdisciplinary event that offers undergraduate students from every department and program the opportunity to showcase their research in the form of a brief oral presentation or a poster. For students who will be presenting research in a particular departmental or programmatic event the Parents Association Symposium is another opportunity to share research with a university-wide audience.

"Being able to present my research and have conversations about it was very memorable to me because it made me realize how important and personal my research is to me."
-URC Student 2007

Logistics & Schedule:

This event consists of three oral presentation sessions and two poster sessions. Students who are presenting in the Parents Association Symposium are expected to check-in at the registration desk (outside the Granite State Room) 30 minutes prior to the start of their session and check into the room they will be presenting in 15 minutes prior to the start of the session. Upon arrival at the registration desk presenters will receive a name tag along with an event calendar and room assignment. We strongly encourage presenters to attend the entire Parents Association Undergraduate Research Symposium and to utilize the URC Email Invitation option to invite peers, faculty, friends, and others to their presentation.

Oral Presentations

The oral sessions will be held in the Memorial Union Building (rooms to be announced). A moderator hosts each individual session and will start each session promptly. All students are allotted 8 minutes for their oral presentations followed by 2-3 minutes for questions. The majority of the sessions include approximately five to six presenters. The exact session to which each student is assigned will be included in the final program (available one week before the event on the URC website). The moderators also will evaluate each presentation to identify students who will be awarded an award of excellence (see rubric for criteria for evaluating oral presentations). Oral Presentation Tips offers important suggestions for preparing and implementing an effective oral presentation.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If using the 2007 version of PowerPoint, please save your slide presentation as both the 2003 and 2007 versions of PowerPoint.

Poster Presentations

Two poster sessions will be held in the Granite State Room in the Memorial Union Building. The Posters webpage specifies size requirements and offers suggestions for how to create an effective poster. All posters will be evaluated by a group of judges according to a set of specific criteria to identify students who will be awarded an award of excellence (see rubric for evaluation criteria).

Students are expected to deliver and set-up their posters the afternoon before the event on Thursday April 24 between 3:00-5:00 PM in the Granite State Room. We also expect students to be at their posters for the duration of their session (i.e., 70 minutes).