What is Student Research & Scholarship Day (SRSD)?

Student Research & Scholarship Day (SRSD) is an annual event to showcase the research and scholarship activities of USCB students.

In preparation for SRSD, students join with faculty mentors to produce research and scholarship in the following categories:

Poster Presentations

• Hypothesis-Driven — basic and applied research, testing a hypothesis using inferential statistics
• Issue-Based — non-hypothesis based applied research, examining a socio-cultural, educational, political, health-related, economic, or technological issue.
• Descriptive — non-hypothesis based research, guided by a question or set of questions
• Visual Arts — Presentations of creative/artistic renderings
• Innovation/Application — Non-hypothesis driven project to develop a novel technique, algorithm, or procedural method for pedagogy, information processing, engineering, problem solving, or domain-specific best practices
• Inquiry — An inquiry-based project, exploring a question (which may be in the form of a thesis statement) about a topic, using research methodologies appropriate for its discipline (for example, educational, historical, rhetorical, political, socio-cultural, or literary critical analysis).

Oral Presentations

• Student Scholarship in the Humanities - literary & cultural criticism, storytelling, readings of original student written works

There is also a secondary designation that can be applied to any presentation category, if applicable:
Social Justice – projects (submitted for consideration in all the other categories) that pose and address questions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and/or social justice are eligible for consideration and recognition for the first-annual USCB SRSD Social Justice Award.

Oral presentations must not exceed 20 minutes.

Posters must follow the specific formatting and size specifications (full-color 48” wide x 36” tall; see FAQ). For your convenience, Powerpoint-based poster templates are now available for each of the poster categories. (To download: Right-click on the link, and then choose "Save Link As..." from the contextual menu that appears.)

• Descriptive Poster Template
• Hypothesis-Driven Poster Template
• Issue-Based Poster Template
• Science Poster Template
• Blank Poster Template

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Presenting at SRSD

A student may present either an individual or group project at SRSD and must have a mentor who is a full-time faculty member at USCB. Your mentor must register for SRSD and approve your abstract and poster in order for you to participate.

Participants must adhere to the following schedule and deadlines:

• Monday, March 11 — Begin open registration period of intent to participate in SRSD, with the student’s name, the mentor’s name, project title, and poster category. Abstracts are not due at this time.
• Friday, April 5 at 11:59pm — Submission deadline for FINAL versions of project abstracts and/or artist statements. Be sure your mentor registers for SRSD and approves your abstract by the deadline indicated below.
• Sunday, April 7 at 11:59pm — Deadline for faculty mentor registration and approval of submitted abstracts. Mentors must be registered on the SRSD website via the link above and they must review and approve your abstract as instructed in the SRSD FAQ document. If your mentor does not formally approve your abstract by this time, then it will be removed from the SRSD database.
• Wednesday, April 10 at 11:59pm — Deadline for submission of students' posters. Poster submission will be open starting on Wednesday, April 3 at 8:00am. Because the SRSD committee will need time to have the posters printed, no updates or submissions will be permitted after this date. No exceptions!

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Submission Requirements

Registering your intent to participate

SRSD uses an online application to manage registrations and abstracts/artist statements. Click on the appropriate large button at the top of this page to begin the process, which includes the following steps:

• Register on the SRSD website. Use your name and USCB e-mail address to register. A password will be generated for you and sent to you as part of your registration confirmation email.
• Submit your abstract. Before you submit your abstract, please review the "Writing Abstracts" section at the bottom of the page.
1. Login with your e-mail address and SRSD password. Note that your SRSD password will be different from your Blackboard password — if you don't know your SRSD password, you'll find it in your registration confirmation email.
2. Fill in the form to complete your abstract submission, and click Submit. Abstracts and artist statements can be edited by the mentor for any special characters or formatting required.
• After you submit your abstract or artist statement, you’ll receive an e-mail as a receipt. If your mentor has already registered for SRSD, then your mentor will also receive an e-mail. Please note that your faculty mentor must register for SRSD and approve your abstract by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 7, 2024 in order for you to be able to participate in SRSD. More detailed information is available in the SRSD FAQ document.
• If you have technical problems with any part of the registration or submission process, please be sure to check your email for your registration confirmation message, which will include your login information. NOTE: If you have multiple school-related email addresses, please note that whichever email address you used for registration (ending in email.uscb.edu, email.sc.edu, or uscb.edu) will be the email address you will use for logging in. And remember that your password for SRSD is NOT the same as the password you use for Blackboard, USCB email, etc. If you still need assistance, please contact the SRSD Webmaster, Dr. Brian Canada, at bcanada@uscb.edu. (Please provide enough detail to reproduce the issue if necessary.)

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Writing Abstracts

Your abstract (or, for those in the Visual Arts category your artist statement) must be 250 words or fewer.

If you have received financial support for your project, you should acknowledge that at the end of the abstract.

Resources for writing abstracts:

• http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html
• http://curartsandhumanities.org/resources/how-to-write-an-abstract/ (advice for writing humanities abstracts)

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Mentoring Tips

We've compiled a list of potentially useful suggestions and guidelines for mentoring undergraduate researchers:

• From the University of Kansas: 6 Tips for Effective Undergraduate Research Mentoring
• From George Washington University: Mentoring Undergraduate Research
• From Caltech: Mentoring Tips

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Presentation Etiquette

The people who come to visit your poster at SRSD come from a more general audience than you'd encounter at a highly specialized academic conference. Therefore, we strongly suggest that you should design and present your poster with a general public audience in mind.

We've also prepared a list of tips for conducting yourself professionally during the poster session:

• USCB SRSD Poster Etiquette

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For More Information

Before you contact us: Please make sure to review the Frequently Asked Questions—it's highly possible that your question may be answered there. Please note that the FAQs are currently under revision due to SRSD returning to an in-person format; the revised FAQs will be posted soon.

Otherwise, if the FAQ document or this website doesn't address your concerns, then please feel free to email the SRSD co-chairpersons:

• Dr. Kim Cavanagh - kcavanagh@uscb.edu
• Dr. Beth Hammond - ejh49@uscb.edu

Q: When can I start signing up, and where do I do it?

A: Registration begins on Monday, March 11th, 2024. Please start by going to https://researchday.uscb.edu. Choose one of the following options: If you are a Student Presenter, click on the button "REGISTER AS A STUDENT" (Note that the actual link text may be updated as we get closer to the SRSD event date). If you are a Faculty Mentor, click on the button "REGISTER AS A FACULTY MENTOR."

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Q: What do I do if I'm working on the same abstract with a group of students?

A: All students working in a group should register for SRSD so that we can track participation. However, only one student in the group should submit an abstract on behalf of the group. When that student submits the abstract, he/she/they should list all of their collaborators, including all students in the group, and possibly the name of the faculty mentor as well, if that is the faculty mentor's preference.

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Q: Can one student submit multiple abstracts?

A: No — only one abstract or artist statement can be submitted per student. However, the same student can be listed as a co-author on more than one abstract. Students should not attempt to work around this by registering more than once using different email addresses.

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Q: How do I choose a faculty mentor?

A: The mentor might choose you, or you may reach out to a full-time professor or adjunct at USCB that works/teaches in your topic area of interest. You might have started researching this topic as a class project, or you may already be participating in undergraduate or graduate research with this professor.

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Q: What does a mentor do?

A: While that depends on the student and the topic, your mentor should serve as an editor and advisor to help you develop your project to its fullest potential. The mentor can help you focus the overall project into one of the specific categories of research and scholarship presented at SRSD.

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Q: What are the categories?

A: The categories occasionally change from year to year. This year's categories are:

• Poster Presentations
  • Hypothesis-Driven — Basic and applied research, testing a hypothesis using inferential statistics
  • Issue-Based — Issue-based research is non-hypothesis based applied research, examining a socio-cultural, educational, political, health-related, economic, or technological issue
  • Descriptive — Descriptive research is non-hypothesis based research guided by a question or set of questions
  • Inquiry — An inquiry-based project, exploring a question (which may be in the form of a thesis statement) about a topic, using research methodologies appropriate for its discipline (for example, educational, historical, rhetorical, political, socio-cultural, or literary critical analysis).
  • Innovation/Application — Non-hypothesis driven project to develop a novel technique, algorithm, or procedural method for pedagogy, information processing, engineering, problem-solving, or domain-specific best practices
  • Visual Arts — Presentations of creative/artistic renderings
• There is also a category for Oral Presentations of Student Scholarship in the Humanities.
• There is also a secondary designation that can be applied to any presentation category, if applicable:
  Social Justice – projects (submitted for consideration in all the other categories) that pose and address questions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and/or social justice are eligible for consideration and recognition for the USCB SRSD social justice award.

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Q: What is the format of the presentations?

A: Other than the oral presentations, all presentations are currently poster-based. We encourage all students to create a sized poster at 4 feet (48 in.) wide by 3 feet (36 in.) tall. There are several poster templates (one for each poster category) on the website to help you with this. (Click on the 'About SRSD' tab above and scroll down to find the suggested PowerPoint poster templates that are pre-sized at 48”W by 36”H.

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Q: How do I make a poster for SRSD?

A: Please start by using one of the templates available on the SRSD website (see the "About SRSD section"). These are PowerPoint files that have been formatted as one big "slide" sized at 4 feet (48 in.) wide x 3 feet (36 in.) tall. You can lay out electronic graphics (e.g., pictures, graphs, etc.) with appropriate text. In the event that your poster is eventually printed for a future conference, try to pick a font that is visible from 3 feet away from a poster; we recommend nothing smaller than a 24-point font. Once you have completed the design of your poster using PowerPoint (or other software as approved by your Faculty Mentor), please save it in PDF file format. Please submit only the PDF file.

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Q: What all do I need to prepare for SRSD?

A: Poster and manuscript submission will be open starting on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024, and continuing until 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 10th, 2024. Note that abstracts must be submitted by registered students by no later than 11:59pm on Friday, April 5th, 2024. Please make sure that you and your Mentor carefully review the following submission requirements:

• For posters: Prepare your poster in the usual format (48" wide by 36" tall) using a PowerPoint template as in past years (see the previous question). This will enable students to print out their full-size posters for future conferences if this is something that the students or their mentors have planned. Unless your mentor has suggested a different software application for poster preparation, your poster should be prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint (PPTX) format and then converted to a PDF file for submission.
• For oral presentations:You should plan to submit their manuscript as a PDF file using the same upload mechanism used for poster submission.
• Given the time and effort required by the SRSD committee to print the posters and prepare the SRSD mobile app for use on the day of the event, we kindly ask that you work closely with your Mentor to ensure that posters are submitted on time, they meet the given specifications, and that they are of sufficiently high quality.
• Additional instructions and guidelines for mentors:
  • Mentors are required to approve your students' abstracts in order for their work to be included in SRSD. You can approve your abstracts by following these instructions:
    • Log into the SRSD website at https://researchday.uscb.edu/mentor_login.php(noting that your SRSD mentor login password was sent to you via email)
    • After logging in successfully, you should see a web page with a table of your students’ abstracts. To edit one of your students’ abstracts, enter the Abstract ID in the space provided at the bottom of the page, and then click “Go to Project Page” button.
      • NOTE: If you are certain that each of your mentored students has submitted an abstract but none of those abstracts are showing up in the table, please email the webmaster, Dr. Brian Canada (bcanada@uscb.edu), and let him know that this was the case. (The problem will most likely be due to the fact that the first name and/or last name you used during registration does not match the names listed in the database of eligible faculty mentors. Please do not re-register under a different name; Dr. Canada will correct your registered name in the database so that your students’ abstracts will be visible.)
    • When you edit your student’s abstract, be aware that HTML tags are supported, which may be useful for things like ^{^superscripts},_{_subscripts},<b>boldfacing</b> text, <i>italicizing</i> text, and so forth.
    • After editing your student’s abstract to your satisfaction, please include the phrase “Approved by faculty mentor: ” (followed by your first and last name) at the bottom of the abstract.
    • NOTE: When you submit the revised abstract, the addition of the phrase above may cause the abstract to go over the word limit; if that happens, please do your best to reduce the word count by a few words and try re-submitting the abstract.(In a future version of the SRSD website, we hope to be able to include a check box or some other simple mechanism for providing your approval of each abstract; we simply haven’t had the time this year.)
    • When the abstract is successfully updated and submitted, you and the student will both receive a confirmation email containing the updated abstract. It’s possible that in the email, the text may appear to be formatted incorrectly. In most cases, you can ignore this apparent formatting error; this is a by-product of the process by which the emails are automatically generated, and this may be fixed in a future version of the SRSD application.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: If we do not see the phrase “Approved by faculty mentor: ” (followed by your first name and last name) at the bottom of your student’s abstract by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 7, 2024, then your student’s abstract will be deleted from the database and they will not be permitted to participate in SRSD.
  • After the abstract is approved, please work with your students to make sure that their posters and manuscripts are of sufficient quality. In past years, many students have neglected to include their own names and other key information on the posters, so please make sure your mentored students have done so!
  • We kindly ask that you do your best to have your students submit their posters and manuscripts only after you have approved them! (There is not yet a formal process in place for approving your students’ posters, manuscripts, and videos. It will be up to you as the faculty mentor to approve each of these artifacts.)

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Q: What do I get for participating?

A: Awards for the best posters and oral presentations will be given out for this year's SRSD event. All students who presented their work will receive a certificate of participation. Remember that a conference presentation on your research will always add value to your resume when applying for a job. Take advantage of your accomplishments as a "junior researcher" and add them to your résumé!