Melissa
Melissa presented at the Decision Sciences Institute 51st Annual Conference. She described her experience as follows: “Although this was not a typical year for conferences, I felt that it was better to have virtual conferences than in person conferences. I was able to hear about people doing really cool research from the comfort of my home rather than running around trying to navigate where each presentation would be. The best part about virtual conferences though is that all the recordings are available for up to 3 months after the conference! This is incredibly useful because I can go back to a presentation I thought was particularly interesting and re-watch it. For example, some research projects had innovative methods that I would like to incorporate into my project. I can go back to that project and re-watch their methodology section if I did not take thorough enough notes. I would say that the most worthwhile experience was being inspired by the innovative projects taking place right now, whether they were in my field or not.”
As far as conferences go for professional development, Melissa said, “I was lucky enough to co-present with my research advisor. Not only did I learn about formally presenting in academia, but I was able to add that presentation into my resume. According to my research advisor, she said that adding “presented at xyz conference” can really make a difference in higher education applications.”