The 19th annual Colorado Springs Undergraduate Research Forum (CSURF) will be held at Colorado College on April 22.
CSURF is an annual event that provides students with the opportunity to present their research to peers and members of the Colorado Springs community. Students from UCCS, PPSC, CC and USAFA are invited to participate.
Margie Oldham, the director of LAS community relations at UCCS, said that students can register to present on the CSURF website. They must provide an abstract of their work and choose what kind of presentation they want to give.
Students can present their work in a 20-minute oral presentation with at least five minutes of Q&A or give an hour-long poster presentation where they can discuss their research with people as they come and go. Students can also present their work individually or as a group.
According to Oldham, students must have a faculty mentor in order to register for CSURF. “The faculty mentor does not necessarily work on the research with them … it’s only the student doing the research, but the mentor is there to assist them,” she said.
Oldham said that there is no cost for students to present and no limits on the type of research they can present. “It can also be creative works, it can also be performances … it’s very, very open, [and] we don’t care what their major is,” she said.
Oldham mentioned several resources available at UCCS available to students preparing for CSURF. “Any of the Excel Centers can help you … especially the Excel Communication Center, because they can help you with presentation skills,” Oldham said. She also suggested students visit the Career Center, the Kraemer Family Library and the Office of Research.
The Office of Research can help students organize their data, write an abstract, present a poster, find funding and connect with professionals and academics in their field of research.
For students who have limited experience with research, Oldham recommends that they reach out to their professors to help them get started. She thinks that research allows students to put what they have learned in their classes to work and is something all undergraduate students should consider no matter how much experience they have.
“[Students] should give it a try at least once in their undergraduate career. It is archived in the digital reserves of the library … so you can cite that you’ve presented at an academic forum,” she said.
Presenting at CSURF allows students to present to an audience that they may not get to present to otherwise. They can also get feedback and use it to change their presentation for future forums.
CSURF is open to the public and free for all. Students can attend as presenters or audience members. The event will last all day, and lunch is provided. The forum also hosts a keynote speaker, and this year it is Juan Miguel Arias who teaches environmental education at Colorado College.
Students interested in registering to present at CSURF can do so any time before April 4 at 5 p.m. by visiting their website. Any questions can be sent to Margie Oldham at [email protected].
Photo from communique.uccs.edu.