The Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event, attended by students, faculty, and staff, that showcases students’ research. The five-hour event will be held Thursday, April 22, and it will feature a keynote address followed by oral and poster presentations and an awards ceremony. Last year’s symposium was canceled because of Covid-19, but it’s back this year in a virtual format that will mimic the bustling environment of an in-person event. 

The application to participate is now open to undergraduate students, and applications are accepted on a first come, first-served basis. Applications close Friday, March 26. Students must fill out the application page, mark whether they want to present individually or with a team, and pick their presentation category. Lastly, students must enter a research abstract and information about their research advisor overseeing the project. Depending on the presentation category, accepted students will receive respective time slots and presentation details in mid-April.

Oral presentations will be held on BlueJeans and students will have specific time slots to present their research to the attendees, individually or with teammates. The research can be accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation or any other visual to address key points from the work being presented. As opposed to the oral presentation, the poster session will be hosted on Gatherly, a platform co-founded by Tech students. The poster session will have a marketplace-like environment where people can walk around the virtual rooms to ask questions about students’ research.

After the presentation session, the awards announcements will take place. The award categories highlight the top oral presenters, top poster presenters, Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher (OUR) from each college, and top presenters who have been enrolled or are currently enrolled in the Explore Living Learning Community. Utilizing another Tech student-founded platform, RocketJudge, faculty will have the opportunity to vote on the top presenters from each category. The OUR award is based on submissions from each college before the event takes place. 

The symposium application will be open until March 26. Accepted applicants will have an opportunity to learn best practices for presenting their research from the Undergraduate Research Ambassadors (URA) at a workshop either Tuesday, April 13 at 11 a.m. (virtual session) or Thursday, April 15 at 11 a.m. (in-person session). 

To register for a workshop, visit b.gatech.edu/2P290Im 

To get more information or register for the symposium, visit symposium.urop.gatech.edu