Undergraduate students of all disciplines can submit applications for inclusion in the 15th annual Undergraduate Student Symposium until Feb. 5.
The Farquhar Honors College will host the symposium, which is a showcase of undergraduate students’ work through poster displays and oral and film presentations, on April 8.
Don Rosenblum, dean of the college, said that the symposium is meant to recognize student accomplishments.
“The showcase lets students see all that’s possible and get excited about their potential and opportunity,” he said.
In the past, the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences hosted the symposium. Some projects featured in the symposium in past years have been published, presented at national conferences and led to further research.
Rosenblum hopes that because the newly-created Farquhar Honors College is hosting the symposium, more students from other colleges will participate.
All participants in the symposium must secure a faculty sponsor. The Undergraduate Student Symposium is a competitive event, culminating in an award ceremony. NSU faculty serve as judges.
“I know, and many faculty know, that there are many fantastic things that are going on at NSU that can’t happen at many other large, prestigious universities,” said Rosenblum. “This is a way of showing off one of our unique qualities — the time and attention that students get from their faculty and the opportunity to participate in research endeavors.”
Marisa Oleski, senior biology major, won first place for poster presentations in last year’s symposium. Her project was an extension of a paper she wrote for a composition class. She researched 30 viral videos, analyzing their contents to discover what elements she could find in viral videos that weren’t present in other videos. She found that the most common similarity among them was the use of irony, followed by original content.
For Oleski, interacting with attendees and participants was the highlight of the symposium.
“You go into the symposium sort of as an expert in your little field,” she said. “But people bring you more ideas for how to further your research.”
Puja Patel, senior biology major, collaborated with other students to study the effect that agonism of specific receptors had on human neural stem cells. The team received an honorable mention for poster presentations.
Patel said that she wouldn’t change anything about her experience at the symposium.
“It’s a great opportunity to get to show your research,” she said. “The spotlight’s on you when you have to present. It’s pressure, but it’s nice to be on the spot sometimes. You get to do research in a lab alone, but when you’re out there, and everyone’s talking to you about it, you feel a kind of kinship.”
Patel enjoyed seeing the presentations from students in other disciplines.
“It’s nice to get to see the other things that you don’t study, because you don’t get exposure to it every day,” she said.
Rosenblum had advice for students considering applying for inclusion in the symposium.
“Talk to your faculty member about the concept or idea that you want to present, and take the work seriously,” he said.
To apply for the Undergraduate Student Symposium, visit cfapps.nova.edu/student-symposium. Faculty will review the submissions and notify applicants in early March about their participation in the symposium.
Photo printed with permission from Alyssa Rothman
