The 9th Annual SURSCA "Evening Gala of RSCA" breaks its own records!

On the evening of November 17th 2010, SURSCA (the Society for Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities) held it’s 9th annual “Gala Evening of Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities”! Begun in 2002 as its signature event the Gala has been held by SURSCA each Fall since then and has regularly drawn 25-30 presenters to showcase their scholarship from across the campus. This year, some 42 presenters from a wide variety of disciplines presented and/or performed their work. Collectively, more than 175 people attended the event throughout the evening. This represents the largest group of presenters and attendees in the history of SURSCA.
In addition to presentations on economic trends and rehabilitation strategies to treat children with cerebral palsy, posters also covered topics like spatial reasoning by cows (measured by GPS technology), zebra fish models of heart disease and tissue engineering in cancer biology. Several topics from Physics, Psychology, Economics, Food Science, and Health/Human Performance, Biotechnology, English and Chemistry as well as others rounded out the presentation line-up. The evening was capped by a beautiful piano performance from a Psychology/Music double major! Chancellor Van Galen delivered a keynote address and SURSCA President Tim Morris discussed the impact of undergraduate research on his education as well as the opportunities that have been generated by this work across the campus. When Tim quoted a recent Counsel on Undergraduate Research (CUR) review team-member who said “UWRF is a undergraduate RSCA power in the nation”, the audience gave a load cheer!
In addition to the keynote, CAS Dean Brad Caskey and Education and Professional Studies Dean Fay Perkins both discussed the impact of undergraduate RSCA in their schools and across the campus. Dr. Perkins cited the efforts of faculty in her school to develop and integrate research into their courses while Dr. Caskey compared the work done here at UWRF in advanced biotechnology to that done at Purdue University Graduate School.
Altogether, some 42 presentations were made and more than 175 people attended from across the campus and the River Falls community. Again, this was the single largest turnout in the 9 year history of the SURSCA “Gala”! Next year, we move to the Ballroom!!!
Now our RSCA students across the campus have turned their attention to final abstract submissions for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR 2011) that were due by the 19th!!! Hopefully we topped our total from last year of 62 presentations….another historic first!