Campuswide Undergraduate Research Symposium explores importance of mentoring relationships The campus’s inaugural Undergraduate Research symposium was held April 29 in the Illini Union. “This symposium creates an opportunity to showcase our finest undergraduate research and creative efforts and highlights the impressive achievements of our highly capable student population,” said Provost Linda Katehi. According to Katehi, nearly 40 percent of the UI’s undergraduate students participate in research or creative activities outside the classroom during their studies. “Over the next five years, we aim to involve greater numbers of undergraduates in research and creative endeavors under the leadership of faculty mentors,” Katehi said in her welcoming remarks. “As an institution where research, innovation and creative activities flourish, we strive to make involvement in such activities a hallmark of the Illinois undergraduate experience.” The symposium included more than 100 presentations on research by undergraduates. Multiple presentations took place concurrently throughout the day in the Illini Union. Dorothy Espelage, a professor of educational psychology, and two of her former students delivered the keynote address about building lifelong mentoring relationships through undergraduate research participation. Among the topics of the student presentations – generally scheduled for 15 minutes apiece – were media production in a digital age, leisure and arthritis among older adults, disability and relevant design, individual tax evaders, social consequences of youth depression, and emotions and psychological needs. The event is an initiative that grew out of the Campus Strategic Plan. For a list of scheduled presentations, go to www.provost.uiuc.edu/committees/ugresearchprog.pdf. Photos: Above Celebrating excellence Brittany Baker, at microphone, and other members of the Inner Voices Social Theatre group performed in the Courtyard Caf at the Illini Union during the April 29 campuswide Undergraduate Research Symposium at the Illini Union. The event, which celebrated the best of what students are accomplishing in collaboration with their mentors, also featured student performances that afternoon. Below Undergraduate research Zach Johnson, a junior in integrative biology and neuroscience in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, explains his presentation on the “Neuroanatomical Specificity of Conditioned Responses to Cocaine Versus Food in Mice” as part of the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 29. The symposium included more than 100 presentations on research by undergraduates. The event grew out of the Campus Strategic Plan.
photos by L. Brian Stauffer
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