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2025 Student Research Symposium

Research is fun!

Symposium Guidelines
Student must...

  • present original, novel or creative interpretations projects. While this is a wide scope designed to include all disciplines and projects, the key concept must be novel. Students that participate in the symposium must have completed some work, not just a literature search. There must be some novel or experimental component to the research. Through this project students must have expanded basic knowledge with new information, new experiments or creative interpretation.

Student can/should...

  • have small groups (2-4 students) from a class participate. If you did an interesting project in a class, share it with others. Some students use their project from class as a starting point and then find some other students to expand on the project. 
  • learn sound methodology appropriate for your discipline (such as the scientific method). This will improve your problem solving and communication skills as well as learn techniques. 
  • keep your research advisor up to date with mini progress reports. This allows you to gauge progress, but it will be different from class because there is no grade to mark your progress. Discuss with your advisor goals of the project and tasks to be completed.  
  • plan ahead. writing an abstract and presenting can be time consuming, but work ahead of time can make all the difference. Editing a poster requires many eyes to catch typos and plan the poster layout. Typically posters can take up to several days to print. While the committee will financially support the cost of printing as much as we can, our prices are determined by non-rush printing. Your research advisor is busy also so give them time to edit and critique your progress. 
  • ask your research advisor to read your draft and edit the abstract. This may be the first time you have ever written an abstract.  Your research advisor is the best source for edits, but send to lots of people to read. Language that is clear to one person can be confusing to other.
  • ask for help with final presentation. While you can cram for a final paper or exam, you cannot cram for a presentation. Large scope projects need to be concise but informative; small scale projects need to be thoroughly explained. Learning to defend, explain and critique your work in front of an audience is a skill that is sought by employers.  
  • practice giving answers to poster questions. Practice the answers to common questions like “what did you learn about this topic that was unexpected?” or “how did this project make you a better student?”
  • have high expectations of yourself. This experience can transform your knowledge from classes into a career. Seeing the big picture and reaching content outside of college can be rewarding and is becoming imperative to certain disciplines. Your high expectations will be reflected in the quality of your project.  

Have an idea for a project but don’t know where to go? Just ask your research advisor.

Get excited! Research is fun!

Documents from the Council on Excellence in Undergraduate Research (COEUR) and the ACS’s Committee on Professional Training were consulted to generate suggestions on scope and participation as a research student.

Poster Guidelines
BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES FOR YOUR POSTER BELOW:

  • Presenters must be available to discuss their displays during the Research Symposium, Wednesday, April 26, 5:30-8 pm.  If presenter is not present the poster will not be considered for an award.
  • Poster presentations are displayed on poster boards.
  • All posters must include the Ursuline logo, Students’ names and emails, and mentor’s name and department.
  • Posters size should be one of the following: (hxw) 24x42 inches, 36x36 inches, or 36x48 inches.
  • Posters must be readable from at least three feet away (at least 24 point font).
  • Highlight the authors’ names and contact information (email) in case the viewer is interested in more information.
  • Arrange materials in columns rather than rows.
  • Keep the text brief.  Blocks of text should not exceed three paragraphs (viewers won't bother to read more than that).
  • Use numbered or bulleted lists to convey series of points.
  • Before the poster session, rehearse a brief summary of your project. Many viewers will be in a hurry and will want a quick "guided tour" of your poster.
  • KEEP IT SIMPLE. Keep to the point, and don't try to cover too many things.

Poster Examples