TheUndergraduate Research Initiative (URI) is currently seeking volunteers to help judge student presentations at our upcomingFestival of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA) taking place in-person, March 10-12, 2026. 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 University Commons (North Campus), March 10-12, 2026.
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 only sign up to a maximum of 2 shifts per day, thus the maximum number of shifts one could have is 4 over the two days of presentations.
If you are also signing up to volunteer for Poster Presentations, please ensure that you do not book any conflicting shifts.
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 Presentation Schedules for FURCA 2026 (*subject to change)
Tuesday, March 10, 9:00 am -1:00 pm (oral presentations, Health Sciences)
Tuesday, March 10, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (oral presentations, Social Sciences & Humanities)
Wednesday, March 11, 9:00 am -1:00 pm (oral presentations presentations, Interdisciplinary)
Wednesday, March 11, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (oral presentations, Natural Sciences & Engineering)
