“It takes over everything,” said Douglas L. Delahanty, vice president of the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs (RASP) at Kent State. “Posters line the entire ballroom and continue through the entire second floor, with students presenting their research. There are dresses, theater presentations, architectural renderings – really everything.”
Undergraduate Symposium on Research, Science and Creative Endeavors, presented by the Office of Student Research will take place in the Kent Student Center Ballroom from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The symposium was scheduled to coincide with National Undergraduate Research Week, April 17-21.
Photo credit - Julia Hallgren
What happens at an undergraduate symposium?
People attending the event will see hundreds of students presenting their posters. Delahanty said that the number of researchers attending the symposium peaked in 2019 (at 254 presenters and 443 student participants), but then declined during the COVID-19 Pandemic. “We’re excited to be continually increasing back toward where we were before COVID,” he said. This year’s numbers are 150 presenters and 284 student participants.
Benefits of the symposium for student researchers include participation in an academically enriching experience, an opportunity to build their professional resumes and a chance to win cash awards for exemplary presentations. Everyone is invited to attend to see the students’ research and learn more about student research opportunities at Kent State.
Many of the undergraduates participating in the Undergraduate Research Symposium had also partipated in the Environmental Science and Design Institute (ESDRI) Symposium on Environmental Justice, Ecology and Race on April 13 and 14, presented by ESDRI and the Anti-Racism and Equity Institute (AREI). (The photos of undergraduate researchers in this story were taken at that event.)
Photo Credit - Julia Hallgren
Students in the SURE program
Delahanty estimates that about half of the student participants in any given undergraduate research symposiums have participated in the university’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). He was also happy to report increasing participation in the SURE program. “This is one of the major programs for the Office of Student Research,” he said. “It’s eight weeks during the summer working one-on-one with a faculty researcher. The level of participation this year is unprecedented, representing incredible growth.” The level of student participation in this program remained steady during the pandemic but experienced exceptional growth in 2022 and again in 2023. “There was a point at which we were thinking that seeing 200 participants in the program was not out of the realm of possibility for this year,” Delahanty said.
The high level of research activity involving faculty and students on Kent State's campuses has earned the university the prestigious R1 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R1 status is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive, and Kent State is one of only five universities in Ohio to have earned it. At Kent State, students have the opportunity to participate in meaningful research, working side-by-side with university researchers, as early as their first year of classes.
Photo credit-Julia Hallgren