Campus Life

UWF faculty and students to present research, creative work at Student Scholars Symposium

More than 360 individual research presentations will be featured at the University of West Florida Student Scholars Symposium and Faculty Research Showcase on Thursday, April 19, in the University Commons Conference Center, and Center for Fine and Performing Arts.

The all-day event will bring together undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, to showcase their research, scholarly and creative activities over the last year. This year’s event will feature more than 230 poster presentations, as well as 120 presentations in special sessions, including music lecture recitals and research panel discussions.

“We anticipate at least 30 departments being represented across all five academic colleges,” said Dr. Allison Schwartz, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. “Presentations represent the work of more than 750 UWF undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.”

As part of the symposium, an Engineering Showcase will be held on the Cannon Green and will feature 30 engineering teams. There will also be a pop-up exhibit about shipwrecks presented by students from the Kugelman Honors Program, faculty and the UWF Public Archeology Network.

Digital poster presentations at the symposium will share the results of the Department of English reflective writing and community engagement “Typewriter Project,” an art installation in which the public was allowed to contribute.

Other presentations will include the following:

–Trevor Raney, who recently earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and has started a master’s program in communication arts, will give an oral presentation on the research that he worked on as a student in the OUR Works! program with Dr. Deborah Bassett. The project is titled “Does Abstaining from Social Media Make Us Happier? A Case Study from Gen Z.”

–Undergraduate students Michael Hopko and Jeffrey Wright will present posters on their multidisciplinary research project on a DDT survey of local wetlands. Both students were co-mentored by Dr. Pam Bentz, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, and Dr. Johan Liebens, professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Their research was funded as part of the GeoScholars National Science Foundation grant awarded to Dr. Matthew Schwartz and Dr. Allison Schwartz.

–Nicole Strella, an undergraduate student in graphic design working under the mentorship of Amy Ruddick as part of the OUR Works! program, will present her display for the performance art production “Grande Dame Go-Go”as part of the Graphic Design Exhibition.

For more information about Student Scholars Symposium and Faculty Research Showcase, visit online.