CUR brings you an interview with Roberto Ramos, Associate Professor of Physics and Founding Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research at the University of Sciences in Philadelphia. Their institution has about 1200 undergraduate and 1000 graduate students. Ramos explains how a last-minute notification to cancel his in-person Undergraduate Research Festival led his team to join forces and move certain aspects into a successful virtual experience.
Q1: Tell us about the problem you faced with your Undergraduate Research Festival.
Our Undergraduate Research Festival is probably one of the earliest to be held among many universities. The three-day festival was scheduled for March 10-12, 2020, immediately after our spring break. Activities included an Images of Research Photo Exhibit, Elevator Research Talk Competition, a Recognition Lunch, Alumni Research Career Talk, a Research Speed-Dating Event, an Oral Symposium, and a Poster-Session-Banquet.
The problem that we faced was that on the afternoon the day before the events were to begin, I was informed that on the recommendation of our University’s Task Force on COVID-19, the university was recommending that the CUR events be cancelled in order to safeguard the health of the university community and guests. This happened around 4 PM, late afternoon when I had to make that decision.
Q2: What were the initial steps that needed to take place in order to move this in-person event virtually?
After consulting with my CUR Advisory Board, I decided to postpone indefinitely the CUR Festival. But realizing much work had already been done by many students, I decided to salvage some of the events by making virtual or “online”. These included the Images of Research Photo Exhibit, the Elevator Talks, and the Research Poster Session. I had already posted student research images on our Facebook page - where the photos with the most “likes” were going to earn a “Popular Choice Award”. And, I had students email me their elevator research talks – which we normally do “live”.
Finally, I had to get about 50 students to email their poster PDFs which I uploaded on to a Google Folder for viewing.
Q3: What were some memorable moments during this virtual event?
I was deeply impressed by how our undergraduates responded and adapted to the situation. They were willing to record their elevator research talks, exhibit images, and email them to me. Many research poster presenters emailed me their poster PDF’s within hours of my request. It was amazing how they pitched in and adapted to the situation.
Q4: What were some of the successes that came out from this virtual event?
- The Images of Research exhibit went well. We had 9 stunning images participating. One image received over 60 Facebook “likes” to earn the “Popular Choice Award”.
- The Virtual Poster Session had 75% participation, including 4 high school posters and two posters from participants from other universities. We had made up several categories: Expert, Rookie, Course-based Research, and New Ideas - for those researches that did not have enough time to accumulate data.
- We also made a music video of the various CUR Research Events that occurred in 2019 and made it available.
- Given the timing of the decision not to hold a face-to-face CUR Festival, our small CUR online festival was reasonably successful.
Q5: Do you have any advice to give to other institutions who are facing the same problem and moving in-person events to virtual?
By now, most institutions have had time to react to the possibility of moving in-person events online and be more interactive. There are many possible formats available, including Blackboard and Canvas. I encourage you to consider these. It is possible to implement these platforms and give students better feedback and recognition for the research that they’ve done.
We thank Roberto Ramos for his Five in Five blog interview. If you have questions or comments, please write them below. If you are interested in volunteering to share your story through our Five in Five Videos or Blogs, please contact our membership at curmembership@cur.org.