Departmental Conferences
Please check on your department for individual presentation opportunities.
Virginia Tech is home to multiple Colleges and Departments that host individual Undergraduate Research Symposia to allow their students better access to presenting their research. Below outline each of the major departmental symposia here at Virginia Tech.
Note: If you do not see your department or college listed they may not currently offer an undergraduate focussed symposia, please email ugr@vt.edu if you have any questions.
Sheep Extension: Shepherd's Symposium
Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Sheep Producers Association will be hosting the Virginia Shepherds’ Symposium on Saturday, January 9, 2016 at the Alphin-Stuart Livestock Arena in Blacksburg, VA. This one-day program is open to all sheep producers from the region and provides an educational opportunity for producers, educators and other professionals in sheep and related agribusiness industries. The adult program will feature excellent speakers on a variety of topics, and commercial exhibitors will also be present.
Global Forum symposium
The sympoisum will feature results of summer undergraduate research.
The Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience funded six projects over the summer, on topics ranging from mortgages to extreme heat to tiny houses, all with a focus on resilience.
Now, the researchers are preparing to report their results at the forum’s “Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium” from 1:00-5:30 p.m. November 16 at the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech.
The Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience brings together university researchers and partner organizations to facilitate conversations about patterns and processes of urbanization and regional development, with a special emphasis on the long-term resilience of places and communities.
The particular focus of the forum is the evolutionary and transformational resilience of cities and the way that places adapt – or not – to flows of capital, people, resources, and ideas.
The summer research program was designed to support research that integrates one of the forum’s thematic areas – Financial Resilience, Socio-Political Dimensions of Resilience, Resilience Machines, and Resilient Infrastructure – with one or more of the Virginia Tech Destination Areas.
Researchers worked closely with and mentored undergraduate research assistants.
Chemistry majors enrolled in CHEM 4994 for 3 or more credits and CHEM B.A. majors who are using research to fulfill a ViEWS requirement are required to take part in the undergraduate research symposium at the end of the semester. Each symposium is held in April and November of each year. All other students enrolled in CHEM 4994 are encouraged, but not required, to take part in the symposium. Individual research mentors may also, at their discretion, require your participation in the symposium even if you are enrolled for fewer than three credit hours.
The annual VTURCS Research Symposium takes place each year in late spring. The symposium provides students with the opportunity to present their work to their peers and professors to get valuable feedback from a diverse audience. Participants submit a short abstract and create a poster describing their work. Attendees of the symposium select People's Choice Award winners. In addition, a team of distinguished faculty select the Faculty's Choice Award winners. In 2003 they started the Industry Choice awards (now known as the Marston Award thanks to a generous gift from the Marston family) in which representatives from industry select the projects most likely to have an impact on industry. And in 2013 they added the Capstone Award for the best poster resulting from a senior capstone project.
Undergraduate Research and Writing Symposium
For more than a decade, the symposium, formerly known as the English Undergraduate Research Conference, has showcased the department’s commitment to promoting undergraduate research in its full diversity. The department’s undergraduate majors—Literature and Language, Creative Writing, and Professional and Technical Writing—all emphasize the importance of producing research in multiple genres.
History Undergraduate Research Showcase and Spring Tea
Each year for the last 5 years the Department of History has celebrated the accomplishments of their students by:
- Confering Student Awards
- Unveiling the latest issue of the Virginia Tech Undergraduate Historical Review
- Highlighting Undergraduate Research Achievements and Opportunities
Soft Matter and Biological Physics Symposium
Please email Linda Granata for more information.
The Senior Design program is the capstone, integrative experience that provides the basic skills to senior students needed to effectively plan, manage and control, and successfully execute technical projects.
Across two academic semesters, student teams study project management in order to apply their acquired technical skills and knowledge to develop a proposal and design a solution for a real-world problem from a manufacturing or service industry. They then present their work at the Annual Spring Symposium hosted by the department in late spring.
Undergraduate Summer Research Internship (SRI) Symposium
The MAOP Undergraduate Summer Research Internship (SRI) started in Summer 1993, and since then has been a transformative experience for hundreds of students. Students from a wide variety of academic disciplines spend ten weeks during the summer (late May - late July/early August) working closely with a faculty mentor in a mentor/protege relationship to design, conduct and present a scholarly research presentation. At the conclusion of the program, students will present their research to their fellow SRI peers, faculty mentors, and guests. The research is presented using a poster format and oral presentation. This research symposium is the culminating event of the experience, and takes place during the last week of the program.
MLSOC Futures Conference
On March 26-27 the Myers-Lawson School of Construction hosted a Futures Conference. The conference brought together some of the best and brightest minds in the construction industry for a two day presentation and panel discussion about the upcoming trends. Collectively this year’s panel brought together over 100 years of industry experience.
IAWA Symposium
In celebration of Women’s History Month in March, the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) Center, the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and University Libraries will host a two-day symposium on Virginia Tech’s campus.
Mitchell O. Carr Symposium: Creative Use of Wood in Design
Sustainable biomaterials such as wood have become very important to society because of their low carbon foot print, renewability, beauty, aesthetics, and endless possibilities for creating new innovative materials and structures. Given the importance of wood, Mr. Mitchell O. Carr, a retired successful wood products entrepreneur, has joined efforts with Virginia Tech to provide practitioners, students, and academicians with an unique opportunity to learn, explore, understand and appreciate recent developments on wood as a structural and aesthetic material.
The goal of the Carr Symposium and Student Competition is to inspire the next generation of designers, architects, engineers, builders, and wood scientists with the latest innovative uses of wood in structural and interior design applications. During the first three days of the event, multidisciplinary teams of Virginia Tech students will be challenged to design and build a pick-up truck camper built of wood. On the last day of the symposium nationally recognized experts will present recent innovations on the creative use of wood in the design, engineering, and construction of interiors and structures.