Spring Symposium of Student Scholars

Oral Presentation/Performance selections are now determined by the individual colleges, and each college is allotted four (4), 10-minute oral presentations during a designated 1-hour time slot (see schedule under Symposium Details).

Oral Presentation/Performance Abstracts are due Wednesday, February 26, 2025 by 11:59pm

• The Symposium of Student Scholars application, is an online application through KSU Digital Commons. You will need a Digital Commons account to submit to this symposium. If you have trouble creating or accessing your account, please reach out to the Digital Commons team for support at digitalcommons@kennesaw.edu
  • Download a step-by-step guide.
• A separate form should be used for each individual project.
  • Please note: If you do not receive a confirmation email after submitting, your submission was not successful and you will need to resubmit.
• College selections will be notified by the Office of Undergraduate Research by Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
  
  • If your abstract is not selected as one of the four (4) to represent your college, you will have the opportunity to switch your project to an in-person poster presentation or virtual presentation.
• Proposals can be submitted as oral presentations or performances.

*Note: You will need to write an abstract for your submission if you are presenting at the Symposium of Student Scholars.

Visit the Digital Commons to view examples of past abstracts and past programs.

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Additional Details

Each college has been assigned a 1-hour time slot, and each chosen oral presentation/performance is allotted 10-minutes. If you have a PowerPoint or other visual aids, please upload them to Digital Commons 24 hours in advance so we can have your presentation ready to show. 

• If you cannot load your presentation into Digital Commons, then please bring it on a flash drive, which will be the fastest way for us to get you started.

For those of you doing an oral presentation, there are some resources available on mediaspace and on the oral presentation page. 

Poster & Visual Arts presentations will take place on Thursday, April 18th from 10:00am-5:00pm, in the Convocation Center, East & West Activity Wings.

Poster/Visual Arts & Virtual Presentation Abstracts are due Wednesday, March 5, 2025 by 11:59pm

• The Symposium of Student Scholars application is an online application through KSU Digital Commons. You will need a Digital Commons account to submit to this symposium. If you have trouble creating or accessing your account, please reach out to the Digital Commons team for support at digitalcommons@kennesaw.edu
  • Download a step-by-step guide.
• A separate form should be used for each individual project.
  • Please note: If you do not receive a confirmation email after submitting, your submission was not successful and you will need to resubmit.
• Proposals can be submitted as art displays, posters, or virtual oral presentations.

*Note: You will need to write an abstract for your submission if you are presenting at the Symposium of Student Scholars.

Visit the Digital Commons to view examples of past abstracts and past programs.

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Additional Details

Posters & Visual Art Displays:

If you are planning to do a poster or a visual art display in person, you will be assigned a 45-minute slot to display your work.

• Those displaying visual art should contact us to coordinate the logistics (our@kennesaw.edu)
• Those displaying a poster can view information on how to get it printed for free

Resources for creating effective posters for conferences can be found on the  Undergraduate Research Videos page and How to Make a Poster. 

You will be assigned a time slot and a poster number in the program. Please give yourself enough time to find your assigned poster number and put up your poster. We provide a poster board and materials to affix your poster to the board. 

Virtual Presentations (all types):

All virtual presentations will be held on Microsoft Teams in 15-minute increments.

• If you are displaying visual art virtually, you might want to create a PowerPoint with photos of your work.
  • View a sample of our spring opening slide
• If you are presenting a poster, you will need to create a talk about your poster and zoom in on the parts you're referring to as you talk.
• For oral presentations, students typically create a PowerPoint and share their screen while presenting.
• For performances, you might record the performance and show it, or you could do the performance live with a camera on you. 

Each virtual presentation will have its own Teams link, so please use it to practice your presentation before the event.

Make sure you know how to share your screen, zoom in and out (if necessary), mute noisy attendees, check the chat for questions, etc. Practice with friends! Email us in the Office of Undergraduate Research (our@kennesaw.edu) if you need a practice partner. If, during your practice sessions, you type into the chat, don’t worry – your attendees at the Symposium won’t see what was put in the chat before they join the session (you will still see it though).

If you do not have an account in Digital Commons, you will need to make one. Please note that this is NOT your KSU netid and password -- you will need to create a new login and password unless you've used Digital Commons before.

1. Access the application portal.
2. You will need the following for your application:
   • Title of project
   • Academic department under which the project should be listed
   • Research Mentor(s) -- name, email, department
   • All students on the project -- name, email, department, undergraduate/graduate student
   • Institutional Review Board (IRB) status of project, if applicable
   • Any conferences, journals, etc. where this work will be or has been presented/published (if applicable)
   • Briefly describe how your project meets the definition of research (1-2 sentences). If your project does not meet this definition, please do not submit your project for this event.
     • We use the following definition of research (adapted from the Council on Undergraduate Research): "A mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by students that seeks to make an original scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge." Projects submitted to the Symposium of Student Scholars must meet this definition. 
   • Month and year you began working on this project
   • Abstract, maximum of 300 words, as a single paragraph. Please review and edit abstracts prior to submission as the abstract will be printed verbatim in the program.
   • Project type: Poster, Oral Presentation, Performance, Visual Arts Display
   • How you prefer to present: In person or virtually
   • Time conflicts for the date of the event (if applicable)

step-by-step submission guide

If you have never written an abstract before, please watch this short (12-min) video for some pointers.

Abstracts in most disciplines typically have these components (adapted from the guidelines for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research): 

1. Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project.
2. Provide brief, relevant scholarly or research context (no actual citations required) that demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry.
3. Provide a brief description of the research methodology.
4. State conclusions or expected results and the context in which they will be discussed.
5. Include text only (no images or graphics)
6. Be well-written and well-organized. 

Abstracts in the Visual Arts should follow these conventions: 

1. Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project.  (Provide an artist statement.)
2. Provide brief, relevant scholarly or research context (no actual citations required) that demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry. (In the statement, cite your influences and inspirations: other established artists; movements that are referenced or serve as inspiration; political/ cultural/ social issues that the work responds to; personal events, adventures, medical diagnosis; etc.)
3. Provide a brief description of the research methodology. (What techniques were used?  It could be as basic as oil painting on primed canvas, or a more in-depth explanation of the experimental process.)
4. State conclusions or expected results and the context in which they will be discussed. (What did you learn?  What was successful?  What are things to be addressed in future pieces?  How does this piece fit into your portfolio or future works?)
5. Include text only (no images or graphics)
6. Be well-written and well-organized.
   • All of the following issues should be addressed in your abstract, however, as each covers a unique influence that alters the interpretation the work, speak more to one or two components of your “research” in depth
     • Was the work a response to Art History?  
     • Or was the focus the experimental process?
   • While it is assumed you will very briefly respond to all of these requirements, it is also expected that only a few will be the central focus of your statement.

Abstracts in the Performing Arts should follow these guidelines:

1. Clearly state the central research question and/or purpose of the project. A statement discussing compositional or performance aspects of the work.
   • Why did you compose this work or choose this work to perform?
   • What aspects of music are you exploring?
2. Provide brief, relevant scholarly or research context (no actual citations required) that demonstrate its attempt to make a unique contribution to the area of inquiry.
   • How does the composition and/or performance advance the development of your creative output?
3. Provide a brief description of the research methodology.
   • Provide a brief description of the musical work from a compositional or performative standpoint.
4. State conclusions or expected results and the context in which they will be discussed.
   • How did the composition of the work or preparation for the performance affect your musical understanding and output?
5. Include text only (no images or graphics).
6. Be well-written and well-organized. 

This multi-day event will be held on April 16-18, 2025. Students present face-to-face on the Kennesaw campus (April 16th and 17th, 9:00am-5:00pm) or virtually using Microsoft Teams (April 18th, 12:00pm-5:00pm).  

Oral Presentations/Performances: These are in-person student presentations or performances chosen to represent each college (10-minutes each, with a 2-3 minute Q&A after the presentation)

Poster Presentations/Visual Arts Displays: These are in-person student poster presentations and/or visual art displays

Locations: 
Oral presentations and performances will be held in the Indoor Plaza of Prillaman Hall.

The posters and art displays will be held on the Arena Floor of the Convocation Center.

• The address for the Convocation Center is 590 Cobb Ave NW, Kennesaw, GA 30144

Virtual Presentations (all types) will be held via Microsoft Teams. 

All sessions are free and open to the public! There will be snacks and swag throughout the in-person event, so drop by anytime to check out student presentations and get a snack. No RSVP required, and attendance is free. 

Faculty can add the Symposium of Student Scholars to their course syllabi, promoting attendance and/or participation. The event is open to all KSU undergraduate and graduate students and attendance/participation is free.

Some ways that faculty can integrate the conference in their coursework include: 

• Encourage students to submit abstracts so that they have an opportunity to present at a university-wide conference where they will get to network with peers and other faculty in a familiar setting.
  • Students can also polish their communication and presentation delivery skills, learn and/or improve their abstract writing abilities, and gain the experience of responding to audience and judges‘ questions about their research. 
• Encourage students to attend a specific number of sessions.
  • Example assignments can be:
    • Writing a short reflection on what they learned at the conference.
    • Making connections between research from the conference and course content.
    • Critically evaluating research presentations they attend at the conference

You have been given a 15-minute slot for your presentation. We recommend that you do the following for your presentation:

1. Enter your assigned "room" at least 10 minutes before the session starts.
2. Share your screen and show an opening slide so attendees know they've entered the correct "room." We have created a sample opening slide that you can modify, but you can feel free to make your own as well. Information about how to use Microsoft Teams can be found in the UITS Technology Knowledge Base.
3. If you are using presentation software, like PowerPoint, Prezi, or OneNote: Start your presentation at the assigned time, and go into "presenter" mode to make your slides easier to read for the audience. Be sure to leave plenty of time for questions at the end.
4. If you are not using presentation software, we strongly encourage you to turn on your video so attendees have something to look at. 
5. When you're finished giving your presentation, ask the audience if they have any questions. Be sure to check the chat box to see if anyone wrote any questions.
6. Once your 15 minutes are up, many attendees will need to leave to attend other sessions, but you're welcome to stay in your "room" to talk to people (the code is unique to your session). 

Please do not start your presentation early, as attendees might be coming from another session. For those doing virtual synchronous presentations, the link to your session is unique for you, which means you could go later if you wanted to, but we encourage you to end on time so that attendees can head to other sessions if they want. Judges in particular will often not be able to stay late, so they may take points off if your presentation is too long. 

However, we strongly encourage you (if you are able) to stay in your session and chat with attendees informally if no one has to immediately leave. There is absolutely no problem with informal chats after the official end time for your session.

Yes – we are happy to accept the research you completed while a student at KSU in the past year.

This is normally not allowed because it gives the impression that you have done more research than you actually have. HOWEVER!! In this case, it is permissible. The Symposium of Student Scholars is a chance to show off your work to the campus and larger community; we want to see what you’ve done at these other conferences.

If you are creating a resume/vita, you should somehow indicate that the presentation at the Symposium of Student Scholars is the same as a presentation elsewhere.

Definitely! All students, faculty, administrators, staff, and community members are welcome to attend, regardless of whether they have research to present. Attending the Symposium of Student Scholars is an excellent way to see the research opportunities available at Kennesaw State University.

Judges are faculty volunteers; sometimes there are no judges (or not enough judges) from a particular discipline. If you would like to see better representation of your discipline, encourage your professors to attend the Symposium of Student Scholars and sign up to be a judge.