March 2016 NUI Galway to Host Second Undergraduate Research Conference

NUI Galway’s second Undergraduate Research Conference, ‘The Brain Café’, will take place on Wednesday, 23 March, giving undergraduate students an opportunity to showcase their high calibre research in a supportive academic environment. Through this multidisciplinary platform, students get to share their research with peers, academic staff and the wider public.

Professor Lokesh Joshi, Vice-President for Research at NUI Galway, said: “Through NUI Galway’s commitment to excellence in research we have taken on the ambitious call to action that is to build the language, skills and love of research within our undergraduate student community. If we want to promote our undergraduates’ career, we must involve them as early and as much as possible in research, and we see up-and-coming undergraduates participating in creating the best research.”

The world café style of presenting (moving from table to table) proved very popular in the highly successful inaugural conference last year. This format breaks down the traditional barriers associated with presenting research and makes it more accessible to students. It eliminates the anxiety often linked to the regular style of conference presentation and public speaking. 

“Our students are hungry to showcase their work in this nationally unique conference. We are most impressed by the collegial atmosphere of science students listening and engaging with business student presentations and law students weighing in their thoughts with psychology projects. The cross-pollination leads to creative approaches and solutions,” said Conference Coordinator Lorraine Tansey, Institute for Lifecourse and Society.

The conference will take place in between 11am and 2pm in the Lower Aula, Quadrangle Building on Wednesday, 23 March and is open to the public. Registration is encouraged at www.nuigalway.ie/undergrad-research to secure a place.

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