Last year, UNL joined several other international campuses to participate in the International Conference for Undergraduate Research. Seven students jumped at the chance to present their research on topics dealing with evaluating evapotranspiration, biodegradable food packaging and optimizing membrane distillation.
This year, participation has exploded as nearly fifty students signed up to present, and over three dozen students will get the chance. The university will host student presentations with a live on-campus audience on Sept. 27-29. Presentations will be live cast to partner institutions around the world. UNL's presentation schedule is listed online.
"Participation is a good indicator of the way in which undergraduates increasingly see themselves as part of the research community at UNL,” Nick Monk, director at the Center for Transformative Teaching, said.
ICUR is a two-day academic conference showcasing multi-disciplinary undergraduate research from across the globe and is supported by the Monash Warwick Alliance between Monash University in Australia and the University of Warwick in England. The conference now includes fourteen partner institutions from around the world.
Monk encouraged UNL to pilot participation in the ICUR conference in 2020, making it the first school in the United States to participate.
“ICUR allows our students to have an international experience without travel,” Monk said. “This is a tremendous benefit at a time when opportunities for long-distance travel are severely limited. Students can use ICUR to practice their presentation and research skills, at an event managed by other undergraduates, where they have the freedom to hone their skills in a supportive environment.”
Joevy Sum, one of the seven to participate in ICUR last year, spoke highly of the experience.
“Presenting on an international stage is a rare opportunity for undergraduates,” Sum, a senior in biological sciences, said. “I wanted to gain the experience of presenting my research at this level to further enhance my science communication skills toward a wider audience.”
Presenting research wasn’t new to Sum but presenting at a global, student-run conference was a completely new challenge for her.
“Before this, I had never done an oral presentation and was used to doing the short, five-minute spiel of a poster presentation,” Sum said. “I thought that it would be a very fun and unique experience to contribute to a conference run by undergraduates for undergraduates. I wanted to learn about the different research cultures in different countries as well as research areas outside the realm of biology.”
ICUR presentations are presented in a one-hour panel format, with each presenter allotted fifteen minutes to share research alongside three other student researchers working on related topics.
“You need time to prepare and practice all aspects of your talk beforehand, and you need a research mentor and a moral support mentor,” Sum said. “Both are crucial in guiding your technical knowledge and providing you the emotional support you might need when facing challenges.”
More details at: https://teaching.unl.edu/resources/icur-2021-schedule/