Poster session gives Natural Sciences students and faculty opportunity to showcase research projects
Assistant Statistics Professor Robin Donatello said some of the posters presented at the poster session could possibly turn into papers and be submitted to scientific journals. While other posters are a contribution to a bigger research idea.
College of Natural Sciences majors and professors participated in the 14th annual poster session to show off their research Monday.
Assistant Statistics Professor Robin Donatello is this years poster session chair. She, along with 30 others, judged the posters of graduates, faculty and undergraduates that have submitted abstracts and presented posters.
“It’s just a way of letting the Natural Science undergraduates, graduates and faculty showcase their research by building posters that are similar to what you would find at a professional conference,” Donatello said.
Participation in this event is open for anyone studying in the College of Natural Sciences. This year there are close to 90 participants from 10 different departments; including nursing, nutrition, science education, chemistry and biology.
Before making a poster, participants had to submit an abstract of their work. Upon submission, participants are given the option to allow their work to be considered for the Gateway Science Museum. For those who want to submit their work, members from the museum will look at the abstracts in advance and choose which ones they want to look more into at the poster session. These members will then will chose the poster, or posters, they want to be displayed at the museum during the summer.
“Some students will take their work, present (it) at our internal poster session,” Donatello said. “(Some) take it to a larger (or) broader audience, like regional or national conferences.”
There are five different categories in which participants can present their research under. Those categories being: faculty, graduate/faculty research, undergraduate/faculty research, student class projects and student club posters.
Assistant Chemistry Professor Monica So is part of the poster session committee and has also taken part in the poster session in previous years.
Monica So, an assistant chemistry professor and the committee member of the poster session, gave a list of abstracts submitted to each category:
- Faculty only- two
- Graduate/Faculty research- 14
- Undergraduate/Faculty research- 42
- Student class projects- 35
- Student club posters- zero
The poster session took place in Colusa 100 and was open to the public from 11 to 4 p.m. Participants explained their research and answered question from 12:30 to 2:30 pm.
Eric Ayars, a physics professor, has taken part in the poster session for several years and was once part of the committee. He presented two different posters at this years session, in two separate categories: faculty research and faculty/undergraduate research.
Ayars said the poster session is, “a standard way in science to present your research”
Physics Professor Eric Ayars participated in this year’s poster session under two categories: faculty research and faculty/undergraduate research.
There will be one winner from each category and three winners from the people’s choice category. Winners will have their names on a plaque near the Natural Sciences office and a pizza party will be held on Tuesday.
“The most important thing for me with the poster session is a chance to give students experience in making posters and presenting their experiment,” Ayars said.
Kelsi Sibert can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @ksibertofficial
