Undergraduate Research Symposium A Reflection
Attending the Georgia Tech’s Annual Undergraduate Research Spring Symposium was a surprisingly valuable and eye opening experience for me. As embarrassing as it is to admit, I had not even heard of the symposium before my awesome Tech Communications professor asking us to attend. As I walked up the steps to the Student Center Ballroom, I realized I had no idea what to expect. It was exciting to see students outside chatting and enthusiastic volunteers to greet me with programmes. Unfortunately this was a stark contrast to the Poster Presentation session inside. Seemed like it was a lot of students waiting around for people to approach them and discuss their research. What a shame that our peers work so hard on their research for only a handful of their intended audience to show up.
Fortunately, I did not let this ruin my experience and I quickly approached a familiar face. I asked my friend about his research; “In Situ Magnetometry of Lithium Ion Batteries.” I was wowed with facts about how carefully stripping lithium from these batteries lead to spikes in magnetic susceptibility. I quickly realized how difficult it is to sum up a year of research into a poster and a 20 minute chat. When I brought up the question of whether or not I could follow his research development further, it seemed like a dead end. I suggested that he could keep us posted electronically, an idea that he took with interest. Hopefully this gets followed up on.
After thanking my friend for the enlightening talk I continued on my way and decided I wanted something I get my head around. A poster on gang prevention caught my eye. A cheery student told me it was this research was still in the ideation phase and she had not yet got a chance to collect data yet. I took this opportunity to give her some feedback and thoughts on her hypothesis. I really enjoyed giving my insight as an outsider. This made me realize we might be able to turn this model upside down. What about having all students doing these things as proposals? Young researchers could actually have a chance to collaborate and have a conversation with their peers rather than just talking at them. To put money where my mouth is, what do you all think of this idea?
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