The Undergraduate Research Initiative (URI) is currently seeking volunteers to help judge student presentations at our upcoming Festival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA) taking place in-person, March 12-14, 2024. FURCA is an annual celebration that provides undergraduate students from all disciplines the opportunity to showcase their research.
A primary goal of FURCA is to support undergraduate students in their ongoing skill development. This includes supporting students in learning how to communicate about their research with diverse audiences. As a volunteer judge, you will help students develop their communication skills by asking questions, evaluating their presentations according to a rubric, and providing constructive feedback to students. Although skill development is the primary focus of FURCA, the judging process is competitive, and there are a small number of monetary awards for exceptional presentations. Scores and feedback provided by volunteer judges directly influence award outcomes.
We encourage individuals from all disciplines to serve as volunteer judges! Judges are not required to have specific disciplinary expertise for every presentation. This is a multi-disciplinary event, and one of the criteria students are judged on is their ability to communicate effectively to audiences from other disciplines. This is a great opportunity to engage with curious, creative U of A students, and learn about research across disciplines!
Duties:
- Sign up for a minimum of 1 shift (2 hour slots), taking place in-person in the Students' Union Building (North Campus), March 12-14, 2024.
- Read and familiarize yourself with judging instructions that will be sent out at a later date
- Actively participate in the live Q&A portion following each presentation
- Provide specific, mindful, and constructive feedback to student presenters
- Submit scores and written feedback for each student presenter
Additional Details and Requirements
- You may sign up for as many shifts as you like.
- Judges must be graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, faculty members, staff, or U of A alumni
- Undergraduate students are not permitted to judge
Presentations will take a variety of formats and will be clustered into scheduled blocks of poster presentations, oral presentations, or creative activities. Presentations are normally clustered into broad disciplinary groupings (tentatively indicated below and subject to adjustment based on the number or abstracts received from each disciplinary area).
Oral Presentation Schedules for FURCA 2024:
- Tuesday, March 12, 9:00 am -1:00 pm (oral presentations, Health Sciences)
- Tuesday, March 12, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (oral presentations, Social Sciences & Humanities)
- Wednesday, March 13, 9:00 am -1:00 pm (oral presentations presentations, Interdisciplinary)
- Wednesday, March 13, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (oral presentations, Natural Sciences & Engineering)
