Texas A&M’s Student Research Week was created in 1994 to offer aspiring Aggie researchers access to feedback both from experts and fellow students.
This year, the 17th annual research week will be held March 24-28 and will feature undergraduate and graduate student research.
Samarpita Roy, event coordinator and civil engineering graduate student, said she is excited to see the research students have undertaken and that this year’s student research week is looking to showcase research outside of the hard sciences.
“This year that is what we are trying to encourage, that we don’t want this to be just about science students collaborating and using this resource,” Roy said, “We also want people from other colleges to come in and participate.”
Last year, 1,100 students, 500 judges and around 200 volunteers participated in the event, Roy said, numbers that represent a substantial growth in participation since the event’s conception.
Omid Kazemi, sponsorship and logistics coordinator for the event and civil engineering graduate student, said student research week is a great way for student researchers to receive feedback and judge whether a career in research is a good fit for them.
“Maybe someone has doubts and doesn’t know if they want to do research, doesn’t know what [research presentations] are like, probably, and they can come and share,” Kazemi said. “For graduate students, they are looking for productive feedback from professors and professionals and it’s kind of like a practice event for a professional conference.”
Kazemi said the event is good practice for students and judges looking to attend larger research conventions.
Laurel Christ, sophomore biomedical science and engineering major and student researcher, said at this stage of education getting feedback on research is vital.
“I think it’s one of the most important parts of doing research,” Christ said. “It allows the student to understand what they are doing correctly or what they need to change and it will help them in the long run if they end up doing research.”
Students will have the opportunity to give an oral presentation or a poster presentation, and will be given a time allotment of 12 minutes to present their research to the judges and three minutes to answer questions. Awards will be given in each field of research. First- and second-place winners will receive monetary prizes.
The opening ceremonies for student research week will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. March 24 in the MSC. Presentations will take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. the following three days and winners will be announced in the closing ceremony from 1-3 p.m. March 28.