Center for Interdisciplinary Writing and Research

Virtual Undergraduate Research Conference (VURC) 2025: Opening the Doors to Research

The Virtual Undergraduate Research Conference (VURC) is an annual conference highlighting undergraduate research. The conference is entirely virtual. Undergraduate students around the world and faculty whose work involves undergraduates are encouraged to participate. The conference is a friendly environment meant to provide opportunities to showcase student work, model presentation skills, and create a fun, collegial environment to discuss big ideas.

Proposal submission deadline: March 24, 2025 by midnight (PST) March 30, 2025 by midnight (PST); March 31, 2025 by 7 am (UTC)

Conference date: April 18, 2025

We’re excited to open up submissions for presentation proposals for our fourth annual virtual undergraduate research conference. The presentations last year were outstanding, and we hope to repeat the success. Check out the highlights and award winners from last year’s conference. We want to make this year’s conference even better–by including you! To be included, fill out the presentation proposal form below by the submission deadline (March 24, 2025). Also, take a look at the FAQ’s below to address questions you might have about the conference and then don’t forget to submit your own presentation proposal.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the Virtual Undergraduate Research Conference

Who can participate? The short answer- You! Undergraduate students from all disciplines can present their original research in either a poster or paper format. Faculty and others who incorporate undergraduates in the research process can also present their research in a paper format. Further, faculty and others who wish to discuss the undergraduate research process and other topics related to undergraduate research can propose a “big idea” discussion. For example, we’ve had discussions on open science practices in undergraduate research, how to involve more students in the research process earlier in their educational careers, and outside-the-box approaches to leverage limited resources to get students interested in research.

Why should I participate? Do we really need to answer that? VURC was created to give opportunities to showcase undergraduate research in a easy and free format. Often, undergraduate researchers and even their mentors face too many obstacles to present their work. The cost of travel and registration fees may prohibit participation in other conferences. To facilitate sharing undergraduate research, we developed VURC to eliminate many of the main barriers to participation. To further motivate you to consider participation, here are some other benefits:

• Opportunities to hear about research outside of your major/area of interest
• Prizes (in the form of gift cards) for first (student) authors of the top 3 poster and paper presentations
• Easy participation (completely virtual)
• No cost to participation (absolutely no fees to participate, either as presenter or audience

I’m in, but how does the conference work? First, you need to submit a proposal by March 24, 2025 at midnight. We’ve extended the deadline to March 30, 2025 at midnight (PST). The CIWR will review proposals and notify you about whether your proposal was accepted. If your proposal is accepted, you’ll receive a link to participate in the conference using Microsoft Teams. You are free to share the link with others who may wish to watch your presentation. Depending on the type of presentation, there may be some differences in how you will be expected to present.

• Poster presenters- You should expect to prepare a short description of your work verbally as well as answer any questions. You’ll likely be grouped with other poster presenters. Poster sessions will last approximately 25 minutes. Posters should be sent to the organizers of the conference by 4/15/2025 and will be uploaded to Bluesky before the session with the hashtag, #CIWRVURC2025
• Paper presenters– You should expect to prepare an approximately 10-15 minute presentation of your work. Although you are not required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the description of your work, you may want to consider it to help the audience follow along with the main ideas of your work. Time will also be set aside for the audience to ask questions. Similar papers may be grouped together in “sessions” to facilitate discussions across different research projects.
• “Big idea” presenters- Because this type of presentation could take many forms, there is greater variety in presentation delivery. Ideally, these presentations will be more interactive with the audience than the other two types of presentations; however, presenters can decide what format will work best for the ideas under discussion. Thirty minutes will be set aside for these presentations unless presenters request more or less time.

To reinterate the highlights:

• Proposal submission deadline is March 24, 2025 by midnight (Pacific Standard Time)
• New extended deadline: March 30, 2025 by midnight (Pacific Standard Time); March 31, 2025 by 7:00am (UTC)
• The conference will take place on April 18, 2025.
• Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 (as judged by CIWR personnel) student, first author poster and paper presenters.