UWRF UG Scholars meet to plan for NCUR 2010 travel!

On Wednesday, February 16th approximately 50 of the 62 students who had abstracts accepted for NCUR 2010 met in the Blue Lab to register for the conference and discuss travel arrangements. Students were assisted by travel and funding organizers, Dr. Bill Campbell (UWRF Grants Director) and Dr. Tim Lyden (UWRF SURSCA Faculty Adviser). In addition to registering, students were also briefed on the SURSCA-administered Falcon Grants program and walked through the application forms required of all grant recipient/travelers. Other topics covered included general information about NCUR meetings and the importance of professionalism at major meetings like this one. Students learned that NCUR represents a significant professional networking opportunity with large contingents of graduate school recruiters and faculty/administrators from across the nation. NCUR 2010 will take place April 15-18, 2010 in Missoula, Montana. Stay tuned for more details and student profiles as the date approaches.

SURSCA announces the Spring 2010 round of Falcon Grants, a call for applications.

The Spring 2010 round of Falcon Grant applications are now being accepted. The deadline for applications will be March 25th. Applications can be made in each of three general categories; “RSCA Projects”, “Travel to Present” at professional meetings or “Travel to Attend” such meetings. Students presenting at NCUR 2010 in Missoula, MT have a separate application form. In the spring round, NCUR travel is given highest priority. Following NCUR travel, the priorities for awards are “Travel to Present”, RSCA Projects” and finally “Travel to Attend” with maximum funding levels of $1000, $750, and $300 respectively. Successful awards will be available by the end of the academic calendar. Applications and instructions are available at www.uwrf.edu/sursca.

We’re “leaving on a jet plane”…well, actually on TWO jet planes….a record number of UWRF student abstracts have been accepted for NCUR 2010!!!

Some 50 UWRF student abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2010 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) to be held in Missoula, Montana! Altogether this represents 66 student presenters, which tops the previous record when 42 UWRF students traveled to Lexington Virginia for NCUR 2005. Students going to NCUR 2010 represent 24 different fields from across the campus community…including:

Animal Science/ Pre Vet, Astrophysics, Art History, Bioengineering, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Creative Writing, Criminology, Dance, Economics, Education, English, European Studies, Geology/Earth Sciences, History, International-Global Studies, Literature, Music, Nutrition and Food Science, Physics, Political Science, Psychology and Studio Art.

To accommodate such a large contingent, it was actually more cost effective for us to charter a jet! And, in fact, the UWRF Grants Office Director (Bill Campbell) and UWRF/SURSCA have taken the lead for the entire region by organizing collaborative travel arrangements for other campuses attending the meeting as well. This leadership role has snowballed into not just one “jet plane”, but two!!!! We now have commitments to fill two Sun Country 737’s with undergraduate researchers from across the region (both Wisconsin and Minnesota)! That’s approximately 324 mid-western UG researcher/scholars “leaving in a convoy” of our best and brightest to a major national research meeting! Participating institutions include: UW-Whitewater, Eau Claire, Stout, LaCrosse, and Platteville, plus University of Minnesota, Hamline, St. Scholastica, and St. John's/St. Ben's.

The UWRF student presenters travel will be funded through the SURSCA Falcon Grants program. Stay tuned for more details and student researcher profiles/interviews as the date approaches!

Fall 2009 Falcon Grants Awarded

SURSCA announced the results of the Fall 2009 round of Falcon Grant awards this week. Overall, $16,332.39 was awarded in this round of the student-funded and peer-reviewed grants program. These awards were made for grants to travel for presentation, group travel and RSCA project costs. Some 35 students participated in these various grants, which included individuals and/or groups from Biology, Psychology, Physics, Chemistry, Agricultural Engineering, Food Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Sociology.

The “Falcon Grants” program was begun in the Fall of 2007-08 as a component of the UWRF Differential Tuition initiative supported by the student body and provides funding for students from throughout the campus for undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities (RSCA). To date, more than 250 students have received funding to engage in and/or present their undergraduate RSCA from various fields across the campus.

UWRF Students submit 52 abstracts to NCUR 2010

UWRF Grants Office has been informed that collectively, UWRF students, faculty and administrators have submitted a record number of abstracts to the 2010 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). At least 52 submissions were made to present at this year's meeting in Missoula, Montana. Although the abstracts have yet to be reviewed, it is very likely that at least 45 will be accepted. This will exceed the prior record of 42 UWRF students who presented in 2004 at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virgina. In addition this year, a very wide range of fields are also represented from the traditional sciences to English and Music as well as many other fields.

To accommodate travel for this large contingent, SURSCA and UWRF plan to charter our own jet from Sun Country Airlines! In addition, we will also be sharing the plane with contingents from other UW campuses as well.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting upcoming event/adventure for our students.

SURSCA establishes a Facebook presence!!!!

In December 2009, the current officer corps of SURSCA decided to establish a “Facebook” presence to help develop our outreach to fellow students, faculty, administrators and interested parties. Together with this new blog space these tools will help guide the organization into it’s second decade of activities. Check it out and become a “Friend” of SURSCA!!!


http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=186197127592&ref=ts

2009 Gala Evening of RSCA

On November 30th 2009, the UWRF SURSCA chapter held it's 8th annual "Gala Evening of RSCA" event in the Falcon's Nest of the UC. Attended by nearly 100 students, faculty, administrators and interested parties from across the campus community, this year's event featured work from some 29 presenters. Included in this work were posters from Biology, Animal Sciences, Food Sciences, Psychology, English, Physics, Education and other UWRF departments. In addition, for the first time, this years event included presentations from our sister institution UW-Stout, which was represented by Dr. Micheal Pickert. Keynote presentations were made by the new UWRF Chancellor, Dr. Dean Van Galen as well as each of the Deans from CAS, CAFES and Education. Altogether, another successful start to RSCA in the 2009-2010 academic year.

Images from the evening can be seen at the UWRF Photo archive:

http://www.uwrf.edu/photo_archive/02009/091130galaeveningrsca/index.html