Research Symposium

19th Annual Student Research Symposium!

April 16-18, 2024

Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) presents an Annual Student Research Symposium,  April 16-18, 2024. The Symposium is open to all TAMUG students. Participants are encouraged to present preliminary findings or results from their current research projects. Presentations will provide students the opportunity to share their research with other participants, staff, and faculty.  In addition, the Symposium provides a venue for the exposure of student research to the broader TAMUG community. 

There is no registration fee for the Symposium. 

There is no poster printing charge for those presenting a poster. 

Deadlines

*Additional times may be added if needed to accommodate registrations
**All presentations must be uploaded by 9:30am

• Title of the project
• Names of all authors (lead author listed first)
• Name of faculty advisor
• Department(s) in which research was conducted

Abstracts should be written in the original words of the presenter(s) and should represent work that has not been published previously. Abstracts should reflect the content of the presentation. If your project was delayed, the abstract should reflect what you were able to achieve rather than what you had originally planned to do.

Abstracts will be presented to the judges as submitted. Any errors will not be corrected by the symposium committee. Edits to the abstract after the deadline are up to the committee's discretion to accept. Abstracts are due by Thursday, March 28, 2024. 

Registration: Posters are open to all undergraduate students as individuals or groups. One student per poster must register using the link and submit their abstract and poster by the set deadlines.

Design: Place the title and the authors' names, research category, and academic status (undergraduate) prominently at the top of the poster to allow viewers to identify your presentation easily.

Please keep in mind print margins on your document as your poster may lose up to .5" on each side if you set it to exactly 3x4 feet. See Presentation Design Guidelines below for design tips. 

Posters are due no later than April 3, 2024. Posters submitted after the deadline may not be printed. Please carefully proofread your poster prior to submission, as only one poster is printed per student or group of students, for no charge if received on or before the due date. If you need your advisor to proof or sign off on your poster get their feedback before sending it to print!

Posters are printed by the Research and Graduate Studies Office (RGSO). Please email your posters to researchsymposium@tamug.edu in a PDF format saved in the correct size. RGSO assigns the location of your poster. Poster locations will be provided during check-in on the day of Symposium.

Tutorial: Create a Poster in PowerPoint

Poster presenters should plan to stand by their posters for their entire time block on April 16, 2024.

Scoring: Posters will be evaluated on 5 categories.

1. Abstract
2. Methods
3. Results and Discussion
4. Poster Quality
5. Presenter Quality

Each category has a few prompting questions for the judges to consider. Please see the example score cards below to see points and questions by section. 

Posters Example Score Card

All students (lead and co-authors) whose presentations are awarded will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony Thursday April 18, 2024. Please let RGSO know if you plan to attend the awards luncheon.

For more information about poster printing, visit the Poster Printing page.

Registration: Oral presentations sessions are open to any graduate level student as individuals or groups. One student per presentation must register using the link and submit their abstract by the set deadlines.

Design: See Presentation Guidelines below for design tips. Presentation slides should follow the guidelines and need to be submitted by April 17, 9:30 am.

Length: You will have 12 minutes for your presentation. 3 minutes will be allocated for Questions and Answers as is typically done at national conference. If you have not finished your presentation within the 15 minutes allocated to your oral presentation, you will be asked to stop in order to allow the next presentation to start on time.

Do not have too many slides to go through in the 12 minute presentation time. Tip- 12 minutes, 12 slides. Tip- do not read your title slide, the session moderator will introduce you and your presentation.

Scoring: Presentations will be evaluated on 5 categories.

1. Abstract
2. Dissemination
3. Content
4. Oral Competency

Each category has a few prompting questions for the judges to consider. Please see the example score cards below to see points and questions by section. 

Oral Presentation Session Example Score Card

Presenting:  Oral Presentations will be fifteen minutes per person/group. Students will have 12 minutes for their oral presentation and 3 minutes to allow time for questions. You will need to create a slideshow- for those working in groups or teams- please consider in advance how to organize your talk so that everyone gets an opportunity to speak. The moderator will let the presenter know when they have a minute left to present, and when time is up. After the presentation, the moderator will ask the judges for questions. After the presenters have answered the judges' questions, if there is time, the floor will be opened to questions from the audience. 

Your presentation does not need to be submitted to the symposium committee until the morning of the session; please carefully proofread your slides prior to presenting. 

Projects should be a slideshow in whatever program you prefer (PowerPoint, Google Slides, etc.). Either you or a member of your group will be responsible to bring and upload the slideshow to the laptop during check-in for symposium. The laptop used at the symposium will be a PC so if you use Apple software keep this in mind. If you have any animations, please be sure they work on the designated laptop.

Things to consider on all materials

• Logos: use only the most up to date logos. Do not stretch, distort, or recolor them. This goes for TAMU, TAMUG, and any other entity.
  • The "Wave" logo is not an official logo.
    • See the official MARCOM website for TAMUG logo downloads
      https://www.tamug.edu/marcom/Toolbox/Logos/index.html
  • The University Seal can NOT be used
• Background graphics: use high resolution images only (> 300 dpi).
• Text: use font size of 20 or greater throughout and in tables; make the figure legend text as large as possible.
• Make sure your presentation is visually appealing.
  • Try to consider the contrast of colors between your text and background for readability.
    • Black backgrounds with bright text is hard on the eyes, red on green may be hard if someone is colorblind, light blue on dark blue can be hard to read, etc.
  • Try to balance the amount of text, images, and negative space.
    • Don't have all images or all text
• Consistency: use the same formatting throughout your presentation.

The Studio has workshops and appointments if you would like some help. Any questions may also be directed to RGSO at rgso@tamug.edu. 

We need faculty, post-docs, and graduate students to serve as judges for all sessions. Graduate students cannot judge other graduate student projects but are eligible to serve as judges for any undergraduate student presentations. There will be opportunities to watch a recorded Judges Orientation in the weeks prior to the Symposium. Judges must attend an orientation before the symposium. After signing up, watch your email for further communication and instructions. Please be available for the whole time block you are assigned, check in at the registration desk at your designated time to get your materials. If you are unable to attend, please notify us as soon as possible so we can allocate an alternative judge.

If you're interested in participating as a judge email Holly Richards (richardh@tamug.edu) to sign up! 

The Student Research Symposium had 60 total entries across all classifications and categories this year. The Research & Graduate Studies Office is appreciative of all the participants - student presenters, judges, and advisors alike. Together we have produced another successful event full of fascinating research from our TAMUG students!

Undergraduate Research Poster

Graduate Research Oral Presentations

Past Award Winners