Newswise — Washington, D.C. - The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) has selected the University of South Florida (USF) to host the 2016 CUR Biennial Conference. This conference is an exciting opportunity for faculty, administrators, staff, academic partners, and policy-makers to share peer-reviewed studies of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity (UR) and showcase models of UR activities at all types of colleges and universities, in all disciplines. While making the selection announcement, Elizabeth Ambos, Executive Officer, CUR stated, “USF offers an outstanding venue for the CUR Biennial 2016. As a campus, USF has evidenced deep engagement in undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activities. We look forward to the convening of a dynamic group of undergraduate research experts in June of 2016 at USF.” USF Provost and Executive Vice President, Ralph Wilcox acclaimed the choice of USF as the 2016 site: “USF is honored to be selected as the host university for the 2016 CUR Biennial meeting. CUR is a leader in promoting undergraduate research, and as a global research university, USF is proud to showcase our commitment to providing students in all disciplines opportunities to engage in this high impact activity. I know that the faculty, staff and students will benefit from having the national leaders on campus”
The overall goals of the conference are to encourage broad participation in undergraduate research and to make visible its benefits to students, faculty, colleges and universities, and communities. Students who participate in undergraduate research are better prepared in their fields of study as well as more informed as citizens as they learn skills of problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. But, as faculty and institutions still face barriers to give every student a significant research experience, this conference focuses on creative ideas and practical solutions for meeting those challenges. Conference participants will share strategies and models that have helped strengthen undergraduate research in their institutions—in plenary talks, an exciting variety of conference sessions, and through the informal networking that is a hallmark of CUR conferences. Both oral and poster presentations will be solicited in the summer of 2015, and should address these important themes for the undergraduate research community: internationalization, diversity and inclusion, assessment, integration of research and teaching, and innovation and collaboration. The USF campus is just as excited as CUR about the selection. Upon hearing the news Richard Pollenz, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies, and Director of the Office for Undergraduate Research, USF, said “the USF application was a collaborative effort and supported by many university partners. I am looking forward to learning from the national leaders in undergraduate research so that we can continue to build innovative programs that provide our students many ways to engage in this high impact activity on campus and within the community”
For more information on this event visit www.cur.org/.##
Council on Undergraduate Research: The Council on Undergraduate Research (www.cur.org) supports faculty and student development for high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research, scholarship, and creative activities. More than 700 institutions and over 10,000 individuals belong to CUR. CUR believes that the best way to capture student interest and create enthusiasm for a discipline is through research in close collaboration with faculty members.
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