Schedule of Events and Keynote Speaker

Important Information

Schedule of Events

Download the schedule of events HERE

View the Poster Session #1 Assignments HERE

View the Poster Session #2 Assignments HERE

Book of Abstracts

View the Book of Abstracts HERE

Keynote Speaker 11:30am - Dwire Theater

Dr. Jessi L. Smith

Jessi Smith

Vice Provost & Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Research Integrity Officer, and Professor of Psychology

Title: Lab Rats and Lab Mates: The Motivational Push and Pull of Undergraduate Research Experience

Abstract: Faculty research labs are essential to inspiring their students’ passion for discovery and innovation. That lab setting is a vibrant and immersive “microculture” where students exchange ideas, norms, and values with their fellow lab mates and faculty mentors. In this presentation, we will learn how the undergraduate research experience is a key social context in which students come to understand what it means to be a researcher. We will review findings from a series of national longitudinal and experimental studies with over 1,000 undergraduates to illustrate how the research experience pushes and pulls students’ identity-development, motivation, and career aspirations. We end by reviewing evidence-based strategies for creating and sustaining an inclusive and diverse research microculture to shape the next generation of scholars and advance the frontiers of knowledge.