Sunday, March 27, 2011

NCUR 2011 Travel Details


"Travel Details", a "Sunday April 3rd Activity List" and the weekly weather forecast are now available at the "NCUR 2011 Travel Details" link in left hand column. Please check it for all the latest flight and other travel details surrounding our trip.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Message from the Chancellor...NCUR 2011



NCUR attendees…I know you will find the National Conference on Undergraduate Research to be a great opportunity to present your undergraduate research, scholarly and creative activity (URSCA) on a national stage. The conference draws students from diverse disciplines from around the country, and I encourage you to take time to attend many of the presentations and poster sessions, including those outside of your major. UW-River Falls is becoming a national leader in URSCA, and I know that you will represent our university well. I look forward to traveling with you to Ithaca—see you on Wednesday!

Chancellor Dean Van Galen

P.S. If you are runner, bring your shoes. I would love for you to join me on an “easy 5K.”

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Preparations for NCUR 2011 proceed as the dates approach!

Pre-travel meetings are now taking place for all of the 101 or so UWRF students who are traveling to NCUR this year. This total makes UWRF the third largest institution in the nation attending NCUR 2011. The only larger groups attending are Ithaca College itself (the host) and nearby Cornell University! We have some 76 presentations with 93 presenters/co-presenters and about 8 other students attending to observe the meeting. Students attending this year represent a broad cross-section of our campus community with individuals from the sciences, the humanities, agriculture and the arts. Our students are joining more than ~3300 students from across the nation and beyond in some 2919 presentations. This year, the overall acceptance rate was about 83% of submitted abstracts. These numbers make this year’s NCUR the largest ever, exceeding the normal total number of participants by nearly 1000 presentations!

In addition to our campus accomplishments presenting this year, UWRF/SURSCA is also leading the Midwestern region with attendance and is taking the lead again this year in organizing travel arrangements for more than 300 regional undergraduate students.
Once again we have arranged to charter two jet aircraft from Sun Country Airlines! This year, chartering will save about $200.00 on each ticket sold. That represents a potential savings to UWRF of some $20,000. Altogether nearly 324 folks from UW-River Falls, UW-LaCrosse, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UMinn-Mankado, UMinn-Duluth, UMinn-Morris, UMinn-Twin Cities, Hamline University and St. Ben’s/St. John’s Universities will collaborate in this effort to represent our region at this major national conference. Of these ten institutions, UWRF represents one third of the total group!

Watch this site over the coming weeks for updates and access to YouTube videos of the groups travel and individual student presentations.

Monday, March 21, 2011

NCUR Travelers...please note current weather conditions in Ithaca!!!


Current Weather Conditions
33°F
1°C Light Snow Fog/Mist
Relative humidity: 93%
Wind: 14 MPH from the Southeast
Atmospheric Pressure: 30.12 in. Hg (1020.8 hPa)

Last Updated on Mar 21 2011, 4:56 am EDT


The weather source at Cornell (near Ithaca) has been added to the links box on the left of our page, please check this site out for weather updates regularly...it is still winter there folks!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Another Record Year in 2010-11 for the UWRF Undergraduate Research Culture!


Once again this year, UWRF leads the region and the nation in student participation at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2011 with 74 presentations scheduled and some 90 student presenters (several have multiple presenters)! This is the 10th year that UWRF has participated in sending students to NCUR. This meeting is held at different locations each year and is considered one of the primer undergraduate “research” meetings in the nation. Actually, NCUR showcases work from virtually all disciplines and so is far more than a simple “research” meeting. Our students will have the chance to “benchmark” themselves against 1500-2000 peers from across the nation and even from several other countries as well. Last year we had a record high number of presentations at 62 and we were among the largest contingents at that meeting in Missoula, Montana. This year, preliminary counts place UWRF as the 3rd largest contingent in the nation! Only the host school, Ithaca College and the nearby Cornell University beat us!

In addition, we are also the leaders and organizers for a regional effort to once again charter two jet airplanes to carry approximately 320 students from some 12 Universities and Colleges to the meeting! This repeats the feat we accomplished last year in leading a similar number of students, faculty and administrators from across western Wisconsin and Minnesota to NCUR 2010. Our arrival in Montana on our own charter jets was the talk of the meeting last year and so repeating the effort with more schools this time is a great pleasure for the entire UWRF RSCA community!

Stay tuned for regular updates from New York at the end of the month. The meeting runs from March 31 to April 2 and we will post daily updates…hopefully including You Tube videos and student interviews this year!

Congratulations to all the UWRF student researchers/scholars/artists/writers and so on that were selected to present this year! Great job!

Photos above from NCUR 2010 trip.