Friday, May 16, 2008 in Mary Gates Hall

We invite research projects from all disciplines and encourage students to submit creative work for the symposium as long as it has an original, scholarly aspect to it. For all submissions, students must be working under the guidance of a faculty mentor who can speak to the quality of the research; this includes students working on faculty research as well as students working on their own research under the supervision of faculty. Capstone projects and senior theses are good examples of the second type of student research. The Undergraduate Research Symposium is not an appropriate venue for "position papers," where students are presenting opinions rather than scholarly research.

Very generally speaking, most research is characterized by the evidence-based exploration of a question or hypothesis that is important to those in the discipline in which the work is being done. Students, then, must know something about the research methodology of a discipline (what constitutes "evidence" and how do you obtain it) and how to decide if a question or line of inquiry that is interesting to that student is also important to the discipline, to be able to embark on a research project.

No. All undergraduates currently doing research with a faculty mentor are encouraged to apply. You can also apply if you have recently graduated but would like to present on research you completed while a UW undergraduate.

Yes. All Mary Gates Scholars who received Research Scholarships are required to participate in the Symposium at least once as part of their award responsibilities. If you are working on a project different than the one for which you received your scholarship and you prefer to present on that project, this is fine.

Yes. You are welcome to apply if you are a UW undergraduate, regardless of where you actually performed your research. If you did your research project at another institution, you will need to get the signature of the faculty mentor you worked with there.

You do not need to have already completed your research to be considered. Many students who present are still in process. It is perfectly acceptable to share what your findings or anticipated conclusions are up to the date of the Symposium.

Yes, but no more than two. If you do present two projects, then you must display one poster and conduct one presentation, and the projects must be on separate research topics. If you are both displaying a poster and conducting a presentation, the URP highly recommends that one of the projects is a group project with other undergraduates.

Certainly! You will be given the opportunity to send us names and addresses of those you would like to invite to the Symposium once you have been formally accepted to participate. We will mail invitations to those individuals for you!

Absolutely! We encourage visual and performing artists to submit applications to participate in the symposium. We have had a wonderful variety of art students present in the past on everything from their sculpture and photography to new techniques being used in actor training.

Yes, the URP facilitates abstract writing workshops, where you will learn the basics of abstract construction and see various examples. We also encourage you to take a look at the proceedings from previous years; they will give you a variety of examples of student-written abstracts.

Yes, you can apply with an artist 's statement that is specific to the painting/work to be presented. Please include your ideas, where you get your ideas and/or your process, and what the content of the work is about to help the viewer understand the work. If your work is still in process, you might conceive of the abstract as more of a "project proposal" in which you discuss your intended project and the ideas behind it.

All abstracts are sent out to a review committee comprised of UW faculty, advanced undergraduates, and staff.

You are welcome to note those changes as you develop your final presentation or poster; this might include slightly amending your abstract included in your final presentation. However, the abstract submitted with your application, which will be printed in the Symposium Proceedings, cannot be amended after the deadline.