The Office of Undergraduate Research hosted its 12th-annual fall conference, Nov. 14, in the Setzer Student Center. Students presented their research in front of their peers and faculty.
The event also featured guest speakers, poster displays, a banquet, and an award ceremony.
OUR director Cristian Bahrim said round 200 people attended the conference, including students and professors from the University of Tennessee Health Center, UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington, Texas A&M-Commerce, Texas A&M-Victoria, Western Kentucky University and Lamar.
Bahrim said a record 25 students earned undergraduate research grants.
“This is a special event for us and we are very blessed to have a lot of students from other schools,” Bahrim said. “(It was) all of high quality research that is really meaningful, very nice presentations, very well organized messages. A combination of clarity in alignment terms and technical language indicates they are high achievers.”
Mohamed Irhabi, Woodlands junior, said OUR’s fall conference and spring EXPO are critical.
“You connect with like-minded individuals, but you also hear and learn from other types of research projects that are going on, not just the field that you’re doing, and connect with the faculty and (principal investigators) and researchers,” he said.
Lamar Undergraduate Research Association president Kayla McKinley, Lumberton junior, said she was glad to see students from so many different majors and schools participate in the event.
“I feel like it’s great right now,” she said. “We’ve had so many students from all different majors — people from outside of Lamar — and I can’t be more happy than that,” she said. “Then also, we have a bunch of professors from all the different departments, which is great. A lot of professors asked their students to come, and they offered extra credit, which we always love.”
For information on spring EXPO submissions, visit lamar.edu/our.
