UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH & ARTS EXPO

WHAT IS THE EXPO?

Share your research! The Expo is a chance to present your research in a friendly environment. You can apply to give an oral presentation of your work or share a poster. All projects (thesis, class, extracurricular, etc.) are welcome!

Have a creative project to share? Submit to the Creative Arts Festival!

Have a work in progress? We are happy to consider it. The Office of Undergraduate Research is here to help. See below for more information.

DEADLINES

The submission deadline for Oral & Poster Presentations and Creative Arts Festival submissions is Sunday, April 21, 2024.

Apply with an abstract. You’ll build your presentation once you are accepted. Works in progress are great! After acceptance, you’ll receive additional support from OUR staff.

Research Expo Guidelines

What is it?

This yearly event celebrates the amazing accomplishments and discoveries of Northwestern undergraduates with poster presentations and curated student panel talks. Projects can include everything from a lab write-up to describing how your produced a creative piece. The Expo is open to the Northwestern community, and does not require you to have received research funding for your project to participate. This is an excellent opportunity for you to present your research, get feedback from peers and faculty alike, and practice crucial skills like communicating your research findings, and expanding your understanding of the scope and nature of academic research. It’s also a great chance to network with other researchers!

When and Where?

The 2024 Undergraduate Research Expo will be held in-person in Norris from 10:00am – 4:00pm on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Poster sessions will be split between morning and afternoon sessions; oral presentations will be divided up by subject over two sessions.

Kinds of Submissions
  • Oral Presentations
  • Poster Presentations

Group presentations are welcome for either oral or poster presentations! Each group member submits an application separately. List your co-presenters clearly on your submission. This is slightly different from listing co-authors on a presentation but being the sole presenter.

Eligibility
Open to all Northwestern University undergraduates in any field, in any class year.
How to Apply?

Submit an abstract for your project by the deadline/s listed above! Remember, your project and/or presentation does not need to be complete before you apply! You will receive additional support from OUR staff on your poster or presentation. Click on the “Apply” button at the bottom of the page when you are ready. You will submit your abstract on the Student Opportunities Application Portal.

Awards

All presentations will be evaluated by faculty judges. There are cash prizes available for the top poster and oral presentations, as well as People’s Choice awards for favorites from the audience. 

Creative Arts Festival Guidelines

What is it?

Part of the Undergraduate Research & Arts Exposition, The Creative Arts Festival is a juried variety show of original work created by Northwestern University undergraduates. A committee reviews the applications and selects participants for the festival, while a professional jury picks the winners. All from the Northwestern community are welcome as audience members to support our performers.

Apply online, indicating in which category you would like to participate. You may submit multiple entries.  The maximum length of submissions is 10 minutes.

Applications are submitted through our online application system.  The deadline is April 21, 2024.

When and Where?

The 2024 Creative Arts Festival will be held in-person on Thursday, May 23 from 7 – 9pm at the Wirtz Center. All from the Northwestern community are welcome to attend both events as audience members to support our performers.

Kinds of Submissions
  • Creative Writing: Include in your application the work that you plan to present. Commonly, students who submit creative writing perform staged readings of poetry, short stories, scenes from a play, a chapter of a book, etc.  Share a link to the written piece with your application.
  • Film Submissions: Indicate duration and provide a link where the review committee can see the film, i.e. Vimeo or YouTube.
  • Visual Art Submissions: Diverse forms of art are welcome: photography, sculpture, painting, mixed-media, and more. In your application, provide a link or an attachment, so the review committee can see the work.
  • Performance Submissions:  Examples are musical ensembles, monologues, stand-up, scenes from directing/devising classes, and dance.Indicate how long your performance.If possible, provide a link or an attachment, so the review committee can see the work.
Eligibility

Open to all Northwestern University undergraduates in any field, in any class year.

How to Apply?

Submit your creative work by the deadline listed above!  You will need to provide:

  • Performance Type
  • Performance Title
  • Names of Other Performers
  • Performance Length
  • Link to piece or performance (YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, etc)
  • Performance/Piece description (250 words max) – you will offer a brief summary of your piece.
  • Artist Statement (250 words max) – you can discuss your thinking/practice around the creation of the piece and/or your intentions for it as an artist.

Click on the “Apply” button at the bottom of the page when you are ready. You will submit your abstract on the Student Opportunities Application Portal.

Awards

Submissions will be evaluated by a jury of professionals who will award first, second, and third place.

‘People’s Choice Award’ will be chosen via ballot of the audience members.

Guide to Writing an Abstract for the expo

Abstract Template
To submit an abstract, please download this template to ensure that you correctly format before uploading!

Abstract Template

Abstract Heading Layout
  • Name of Presenter(s)*
  • Name of Faculty Advisor (include institutional affiliation if not NU)
  • Title of Project/Presentation

*Include only undergraduate co-presenters or co-performers. Do NOT include co-authors who will not be co-presenting or co-performing the project at the Expo or the Creative Arts Festival. Co-authors can be added onto your actual presentation to recognize your colleagues for their contributions.

Body of the Abstract
An abstract is a concise summary of your completed project that provides a snapshot of it as a whole.  This text will be included in the event program for the Expo and the Creative Arts Festival.

Write the abstract as a single paragraph of 250 words or less. Include:

1.     Motivation/rationale for the project: What did you set out to do, and why?

Why is it important/significant/interesting? What problem does the work attempt to solve, or what intellectual or theoretical gap does it aim to fill?

2.     Methods/procedure/approach: What did you do, and how?

What is the scope of the project?  What models or specific approaches did you use?  What sources of evidence did you rely on?

3.     Results/conclusions:  What did you find/learn/conclude?

An abstract of a scientific project may include specific data.  Other abstracts may discuss the findings in a more general way.

4.     Implications: What does it mean, and how does it relate to what else is known?

How does this work add to the existing body of knowledge?  What are the implications for the problem/issue identified in part 1?

Important Tips
  • Write your abstract for a general (non-specialist) educated audience.
  • Proofread your abstract.  If you are accepted to present your work at the Exposition, the abstract you submit will be published in the printed program.
  • Avoid parenthetical citations and footnotes. Short abstracts do not typically include references, a Works Cited list, or footnotes.
  • Upload your abstract, including the heading, as a .rtf, .doc, or .docx file.

Guide to Posters at the expo

Why Present a Poster?

Presenting a poster allows you to connect directly with your audience and have individual conversations about your research with a wide range of people. During in person poster sessions, the presenter stands next to their poster but the audience is free to move around the room, stopping to look at posters and engage in conversation with presenters as they wish.

For student presenters, the advantage of giving a poster over an oral presentation is that you engage in a one-on-one dialogue with audience members who are interested in your research, rather than talking at a large number of people from a distance. The poster should make sense on its own, but more importantly, it serves as a means to a conversation!

If your poster is accepted for the Expo you can attend a workshop in May where we will teach you how to design a poster and poster-presentation for any discipline and how to prepare for one-on-one conversations. No matter whether you are in the humanities, the social sciences, or the natural sciences: posters are a great way to share and get feedback on your research.

The Basics
  • The 2024 Undergraduate Research Expo will be held in-person in Norris from 10:00am – 4:00pm on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Poster sessions will be split between morning and afternoon sessions. Applications for poster presenters will be open in March 2024; poster submissions will be accepted through April 21, 2024.
  • The top presentations will receive cash prizes.
  • People from all backgrounds and fields visit students’ posters, so they should be written with an an educated but non-expert audience in mind.
  • Group presentations are welcome.
  • The Office of Undergrad Research (OUR) will hold workshops in Spring Quarter for all Expo presenters. One workshop focuses on putting together a poster, and the other workshop focuses on presenting a poster and developing your elevator pitch.
Requirements

Poster Design

If you have never designed a poster for a conference before it might seem intimidating, particularly if you come from a discipline that is text-heavy and tends not to rely on images or graphs to present data. Don’t let this put you off! We will be running workshops in May to help you get started and practice talking about your research one-on-one.


Click to enlarge.

Click Here to Download Printable Version of Poster Guide

This website lists some non-PowerPoint alternatives you can use to design your poster.

Poster Size and Display

  • You will have a free-standing board with your poster on an easel. You are responsible for bringing pins or tacks to mount your poster.
  • Posters should be no more than 4′ wide. The boards are 6.5′ high x 8′ wide, and we put two posters side by side. Posters wider than 4′ will hang off one end. If you need a lot of space, consider making a poster that is taller, rather than wider.
  • No matter what software you design your poster in, adjust the size so it scales and prints well! 
    • In our experience, a 3’h x4’w poster works well – download a size adjusted PowerPoint template Expo Poster Template
Resources
Resources for Download

Expo Poster Template (164.4 KB) (download for 3’h x 4’w ppt template)

NU Undergraduate Research Logos to use (164.43 KB) (download ppt slide for various logo options)

NU Logos for Schools and Departments

Typically, logos are used on posters to denote institutional affiliations as well as funding sources. Sometimes funding source logos are compiled in a corner of the poster near the “Acknowledgements” section.

Acknowledgement of OUR Funding (please include if you received funding from OUR to support this work):

“The study resulting in this presentation was assisted by a grant administered by Northwestern University’s Office of Undergraduate Research. However, the conclusions, opinions, and other statements in this publication [or presentation] are the author’s and not necessarily those of the sponsoring institution.”

Want more help making a poster? Want to see student examples? All of our student resources are on a Canvas page that requires a Northwestern NetID to login. Login required because some examples posters contain unpublished data not yet publicly available.

Awards
  • Each poster will be visited and scored by 3-4 faculty judges. The judges will assign scores based on the quality of the poster and the student’s ability to discuss their research in-person. Ideally, you will have at least one judge from your broad discipline and at least one judge from outside your field. Your challenge is to present to both kinds of audience members.
  • Award winners will be contacted in the days following the event and given cash prizes.

Oral Presentations at the expo

Why Complete an Oral Presentation?

While both oral and poster presenters have the ability to share and get feedback on their work, oral presentations are more competitive and require students to participate in presentation workshops get concrete, personalized feedback about how to more successfully communicate with a non-expert audience.

The Basics

The 2024 Undergraduate Research Expo will be held in-person in Norris from 10:00am – 4:00pm on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Oral presentations will be divided up by subject over two sessions in the morning and afternoon.

A limited number of applicants are selected by the Office of Undergraduate Research to give an oral presentation. If you want to be considered for an oral presentation, indicate this on your application.

  • Projects chosen are curated into themed panels led by a faculty moderator.
  • Oral presentations are 8-10 minutes long.
  • Presenters are required to complete our presentation Canvas course and attend a presentation workshop where you will give your talk prior to the Expo.
Requirements

All oral presentation panelists are required to complete our presentation Canvas course and attend one workshop.  In the workshop, you will deliver your talk and receive individualized feedback on how to communicate more impactfully.

Resources

Want more help and want to see student examples? All of our student resources are on a Canvas page that requires a Northwestern NetID to login. Login required because some examples posters contain unpublished data not yet publicly available.

Awards

Oral presentations will be judged by several faculty. Award winners will be contacted in the days following the event and given cash prizes.

  Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I apply with a class project?
Yes. As long as your project is the culmination of a significant research or creative effort, you may submit to the Expo.
Can I invite friends?
Building an audience will primarily come through your own efforts. Share your participation in this event both leading up to the date, and on the day itself!
How will I know if I won an award?

We will contact winners in the days following the Expo. Winners will also be announced on our web site.

Who gives out the awards?

The awards are given by the Office of Undergraduate Research which sponsors the entire event.

Can I do both a poster and an oral presentation?
No. You may only do one.
How hard is it to get an oral presentation panel?
The vast majority of applicants want to be on a panel, so it is very competitive. Get your advisor to send us an email in support of you and your project.
If I don't get an oral presentation panel, can I still do a poster?
Yes. All applicants who do not get chosen for oral presentation panels will be offered poster slots.
Where can I learn more about last year's expo?

Congratulations to our 2023 Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition Winners! Check out their projects here.

Watch the 2023 Expo Keynote from Professor Patty Loew who shared about her research assistants supported by Undergraduate Research Grants!

I have already presented at another conference, so I don’t need the presentation workshops for the panelists, right?
All oral presentation panelists are required to attend two workshops. They are designed to provide individualized feedback on your presentation content and delivery.
Who is in the Creative Arts Festival jury?
The jury varies from year-to-year. In the past, we have had Academy Award winning writer/actor/director Thomas McCarthy, local musician Gus Friedlander, and Chicago casting agency owners Mickie Paskal and Jennifer Rudnicke. If you have ideas for this year, let us know.
Can I present at the Expo and perform at the CAF?
Of course!  Bring it on!
Can I be a part of more than one performance at the CAF?
Of course! Bring it on! Make sure you’re listed as a co-presenter if a student other than yourself is submitting the application.
Does my work have to be from an official class or school project?
Definitely not. If it is creative, awesome, and yours, bring it on!
How can I learn more about making a poster or a presentation?

Want step-by-step instructions? Check out our Canvas page here! (Northwestern NetID required for log-in)