National Conference on Undergraduate Research

March 31st – April 2nd, 2011Ithaca College, New York

What is NCUR?

NCUR is an annual conference for undergraduate research. It provides a national setting for students involved in undergraduate research to present their work in a professional setting and provides an opportunity for participants to be exposed to academic work in a wide variety of fields and topics.

Why NCUR?

• Gain valuable experience in presenting academic research in a professional setting

• Obtain critique and review from both other students and faculty

• Learn about other research in both similar fields and in fields vastly different from your own

• Learn about post-graduation opportunities, including graduate school and employment options

How to Apply

• Admission into NCUR is based solely on an abstract submission requirement

• Submit abstracts through the 2011 NCUR website: http://www.ithaca.edu/ncur2011/

• Deadline for submission is November 19th

• Notification of decisions on January 12th

About Abstracts

• 250-300 words in length• Basic content:– Central research question and purpose of research– Brief description of methodology– State either final conclusions, or anticipated conclusions

• Also should include your name, faculty sponsor in parenthesis, and department/institution

• Important: submissions are final, after submitting there is no way of editing your abstract

Some common questions

• Do I have to have a finished project by the abstract submission date, or by the date of the conference?– No to the first, and technically no to the second. All you need for the

November 18th deadline is a type abstract. If you have not finished your research by the date of the conference, you can present whatever data you have up to then; however it is obviously a good idea to try and have a finished project so you can actually present relevant conclusions.

• Is there judging, or some sort of prize?– No, there is no official “judging”. There will not be rankings giving out

to the best research projects or anything of the sort. However there will be chances to win scholarships, only with many networking opportunities with the faculty and professionals there, so it is clearly in your best interest to do as well as possible!

Common Questions (continued)

• Will I be presenting my research for the entire day? What do I do in my downtime?– Your actual presentation time will only be a small time slot. The

rest of the time, it is highly encouraged you look at the other projects in the conference (in previous years, this has occasionally been made a requirement). There will also be a graduate school fair, and this year’s conference will have four plenary speakers.

• How do I present my research? – NCUR allows for four types of presentation: oral, poster,

performing arts, and visual arts. The types of presentation are separated throughout the day so that you will be presenting around the same time that other similar presentation types will be presenting also.

LAUNCH’s Scholarship Opportunity

• LAUNCH Student Research Forum in Spring 2011• Will be held before NCUR conference• Professor panel will decide on three winners to

be awarded the LAUNCH research grant• Research grant will fund travel feels and hotel

costs to attend NCUR• Important: to be eligible, you MUST have been

accepted into NCUR, therefore send in those abstracts now!

Some tips on abstracts

• 1. Describe the evidence that does and/or will support the thesis argument. Note: For those that haven’t yet started their research, but have the idea, this section can be for background information.

• 2. Explain the research that has been done to extract this evidence (methodology), and/or,

• 3. Show what kind of research needs to be done in the future to strengthen the main argument

• 4. Lay out the thesis statement or argument in a few sentences at most.

Important links

• Last year’s conference information: http://www.umt.edu/ncur2010/default.aspx

• Last year’s program: http://www.umt.edu/ncur2010/Conference%20Program/NCUR%202010%20Conference%20program%20FINAL.pdf

• This year’s conference at Ithaca: http://www.ithaca.edu/ncur2011/