Sixty-six students from around the world got a taste of West Virginia University – virtually – at the inaugural Exploring Innovation in Appalachia: an Undergraduate Research Symposium in early August.
Some earned prize money; all received guidance from WVU faculty and graduate students on their research projects.
Duncan Lorimer, associate dean of research for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, said the event’s mission was twofold: To allow non-WVU undergraduates to showcase their research to the University, and to recruit those students for WVU’s graduate programs.
“We got a core of 66 students representing everything from history to chemistry,” Lorimer said.
The symposium was held remotely using the Gather.Town platform, a web-conferencing platform like Zoom but built around a virtual conference facility where participants can interact in many of the same ways that would happen if they were attending in person.
Students held poster sessions and recorded YouTube videos on their research, judged by faculty and graduate students from the Eberly College in three categories: Astronomy/Physics/Math; Biology/Chemistry; and Social Sciences/Humanities.
First-place winners got $300, second place earned $200 and third place won $100.
Find the full list of winners.
“It was about innovation in the broadest sense possible,” Lorimer said. “We wanted to have Appalachia in the symposium title to sell the idea of WVU’s location, attract undergraduate students not at WVU and to plant the seeds for WVU as a possible home for their future graduate studies.”
Lorimer views the symposium as the start of an annual event and a long-term investment that he hopes will pay off over the next few years. The symposium was sponsored by the Eberly College and the WVU Research Office.
“Undergraduate engagement in research provides a unique learning experience and hopefully instills the value of the importance of an objective research method, as well as encourages students to continue to engage in the research enterprise,” said Greg Dunaway, dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. “I am personally grateful to Dean Lorimer for his leadership in organizing this event, along with all those who helped support this great endeavor.”