Daba Coura Mbow
After canceling the event in 2020 and two years of holding the event virtually, the tri-campus Flint Student Research Conference (SRC) is back this year with an in-person event scheduled for Friday, May 12, 2023, at the Riverfront Conference Center. The return of an in-person event offers an opportunity to student researchers to communicate their findings in a professional environment and more directly engage with an audience.
The main goal of the Student Research Conference is to offer an opportunity for students to gain experience presenting their research at a local conference, with students from other institutions, to get a sense of what it is like to attend a regional or national conference. The advantage of presenting to the wider academic community in Flint is that the cost is minimal and the atmosphere is more relaxed and informal. Students from UM-Flint will have an opportunity to see what their peers at Kettering University and Mott Community College are working on. Venturing outside their home institutions students will begin the process of learning from others and networking with other scholars who are interested in similar research topics.
To be considered for the conference, students need only submit an abstract or summary of the research that describes the methodology and the aims of the research. Students have the choice of presenting a research talk or doing a poster presentation. Once the submissions are completed, the organizers of the conference will group the proposed abstracts into sessions with similar themes. Research can be on virtually any topic. The conference is interdisciplinary and there are usually presentations from across all academic programs offered at the three institutions: engineering, biology, chemistry, psychology, sociology, nursing, public health, physical therapy, fine arts, music, literature, and so on. On the date of the event, similar themes and projects will be grouped together and the event will be divided into presentation sessions which will give 15 minutes to each student to showcase their research. Breaks between sessions, poster sessions, and the lunch hour will offer opportunities for students and invited members to network with others.
Participating in this event will build skills for students beyond the completion of their degree programs. It is one thing to sit in a classroom and take notes. But it’s another to be part of active learning activities. Active learning is an approach that emphasizes the importance of learning through experience. It encourages students to discover facts on their own and use them to solve specific problems they encounter. Being part of this conference will help you as a student to get out of your comfort zone and see the full cycle of knowledge creation. In the process, the conference can boost your motivation to learn, confidence in your skills, understanding of the whole research process, and ability to work independently. It will help you as a student develop collaborative skills, increase engagement, improve critical thinking, and spark creative thinking. It will help build many skills for students that will help them towards degree completion, and life after college, either in professional life or graduate school. To register for the conference, please visit the landing page on the Office of Research webpage.
