This afternoon, members of the Tufts community will be able to see undergraduates from all academic disciplines display their research.
The Undergraduate Research Symposium, now in its 12th year, allows Tufts undergraduates to showcase the research they've done either on or off campus.
This year's symposium planning committee consisted of seniors Nicole Cherng, Michael Shusterman and Rebecca Ross Russell; Associate Professor of Biology Harry Bernheim; and Director of Advising and Scholarships Laura Doane. Bernheim credited the students in the planning committee with doing the majority of the work planning the symposium.
The symposium will consist of 47 oral presentations and 60 poster presentations, according to Cherng. The oral presentations will take place in rooms in Eaton Hall from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and from 3:45 to 5:15 p.m. The poster presentations will be held in Tisch Library from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
There will be four rooms in use in Eaton with five or six presenters in each room. Students are limited to about 15 minutes for their presentations.
"The university likes to say that they like the hybrid conditions here as far as faculty teaching and doing research and also having interaction with the undergraduates in research settings, and this way this symposium gives the university a way to show off all the research done by undergraduates," Bernheim said.
Though the research being presented focuses on a variety of subjects, most presenters were part of the Tufts Summer Scholars Program. "Our students heavily come from Summer Scholars, the former Summer Scholars are required to present their work at the symposium, and we also have a [good number] of students from the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) with Sherman Teichman," Cherng said. "Those are our two biggest groups."
Summer Scholars make up the biggest contingents of presenters because they agree to present at the symposium as a part of their grant. Summer Scholars are given a grant to pursue research at Tufts over the summer.
"The provost's office and some very generous donors [fund] between 40 and 50 grants every year," Doane, who runs the Summer Scholars Program, said. "It's full funding with the intent to help the students be able to pursue research opportunities full−time without having to work in addition. The idea really is to encourage mentorship between faculty and undergraduate students."
While their actual research takes place over the summer, Summer Scholars often build off their summer research throughout the year.
"For Summer Scholars, obviously their commitment is over the summer, but oftentimes, a lot of Summer Scholars will use their work over the summer to do a senior thesis or project, and so that helps a lot. In the fall, there's an opportunity for the Summer Scholars to show their work, but in the spring, we have Summer Scholars but we have [other students]," Cherng said.
"It gives students the opportunity to present their work, which is nice, but it also shows that this campus is encouraging research, which I think is really important, because one of the only ways for students to get funding for their research is Summer Scholars," Cherng said. "There are a few other ones, but they're much more selective, and not as many students can. By having something like this symposium, it allows students to see the wide range of research that goes on on campus."
Senior Adam Steinbrenner will be one of the former Summer Scholars presenting at the symposium. His presentation will focus on how plants defend themselves against insects and how stresses on the plants affect their ability to do so. The research Steinbrenner is presenting is part of his senior thesis.
"The symposium itself is pretty good," Steinbrenner said. "I did a poster presentation sophomore year … It's a good way for undergrads to present in a supportive environment."
Sophomore Leslie Ogden's presentation builds off her work with the IGL's Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) program. Over winter break, Ogden and two other students traveled to Sri Lanka to research post civil war reconciliation. Sri Lanka ended a bloody 26−year civil war last year.
Ogden's group spoke with U.N. officials, activists and villagers, among others, and presented its findings at the EPIIC symposium earlier this year. "When we were first going there, I expected to leave with a sense of, ‘Oh, everything's going to be fine, and they're going to administer this, justice will be had,' but I think I ended up leaving with more of a lack of hope," Ogden said.
"We are pretty much split half natural sciences/engineering and half being humanities/social sciences, so we really are split down the middle," Cherng said.
Awards will be given to the best presentations and posters. "We're looking for people who have done a significant amount of work … and can convey that to the judges," Cherng said. "That may or may not be someone in their same field. So, if they're doing a science presentation, they need to be able to make their judge, who may be someone that's focused on history … be able to understand what this person is talking about."
A faculty and student pair will judge each presentation and poster. This year, there are 12 faculty and 12 student judges, according to Cherng.
"The best thing for the community to know is that research and scholarship … affects everybody at the university, affects what opportunities are open and how we converse as an academic community, so I just encourage everybody, faculty, staff and students to come out and support folks who are presenting tomorrow," Doane said.
