Since 2008, faculty, administrators, and professional staff have gathered to participate in a two-day symposium that focuses on strengthening and developing undergraduate research. For 10 years, the Florida Statewide Symposium was hosted by UCF on its main campus in Orlando, Florida. In 2018, the Florida Statewide Symposium began rotating to other Florida campuses during even years, while returning to the UCF campus for odd years. All of Florida’s public and private four year universities and state colleges are invited to participate in the 13th annual event, which will be hosted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

October 23, 2020 Schedule 

Welcome 11:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. 

Session One 11:25 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. 

Lunch Break 12:25 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. 

Session Two 12:50 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. 

Session Three 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

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Symposium Schedule
2020
Friday, October 23rd
11:00 AM

13th Annual Florida Statewide Symposium: Conference Booklet

Florida Statewide Symposium

11:00 AM

11:00 AM

13th Annual Florida Statewide Symposium: Schedule

Florida Statewide Symposium

11:00 AM

11:25 AM

Addressing Research Ethics by Adapting Citation Management Software in Research Projects

Eunkyung Lee, University of Central Florida

11:25 AM

It was quite surprising that only a few undergraduate upper-level students were using citation management software on their research paper. It was more surprising that they were not aware that a lack of proper citations or cutting and pasting from other sources could be considered plagiarism in academic writings. They showed a significant reliance on direct quotations to avoid plagiarism. Cumbersome of manually adding citations in-text could be one of the reasons why undergraduate students omit referencing appropriate sources in-text as well as in the bibliography. EndNote is one of the citation management tools available for free to all current University of Central Florida (UCF) faculty, staff, and students. The UCF library is offering EndNote Workshops multiple times each semester. This presentation will include the usages of the EndNote software among undergraduate students, improvement of the Turnitin similarity score, and students’ feedback about adapting software after introducing EndNote software in my research-intensive Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases.

11:25 AM

Design and Implementation of an Asynchronous Undergraduate RCR Course

Jennifer Moses, University of Florida
Michelle Leonard, University of Florida

11:25 AM

It is not only desirable for all undergraduate researchers to have training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR), but it is also important for their professional development to have a firm understanding of RCR. The Center for Undergraduate Research at the University of Florida has partnered with Marston Science Libraries and the Research Integrity Officer to design a course specific for undergraduate students conducting research. This course consists of 8 modules in addition to a retrospective post assessment, totaling 8 hours of student commitment. Once the course is completed, students have the opportunity to print a certificate of completion for their personal use. This presentation focuses on the instructional design and implementation of this course using Canvas, and the initial feedback gathered for future improvements.

11:40 AM

Pandemic Pivoting: UNF’s 2020 SOARS Virtual Conference

Karen Cousins, University of North Florida
Andrew Rush, University of North Florida
Courtenay McLeland, University of North Florida

11:40 AM

The Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS) is the University of North Florida’s highly-anticipated research poster event, organized by the Office of Undergraduate Research and held each April during Research Week – that is, until the pandemic changed our plans last spring. The members of this panel will share why we decided not to cancel the event; how we transitioned from an in-person conference to a virtual conference; how we created the website, uploaded the content, and integrated a judging component; how we later archived the 2020 projects for posterity; how we reaped some unexpected benefits, not only for the students but for the university; and what we plan to repeat and do differently for SOARS 2021.

11:55 AM

Research Experience for Undergraduates During Covid-19

Mustafa Akbas, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

11:55 AM

This presentation provides the student team interaction and mentorship experience at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s “National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Cybersecurity Research of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” from the summer semester of 2020. The Site had been planned for a face-of-face research experience under several mentors for an eight-week period. However, due to Covid-19, the teams had to meet, discuss, present and work online, which was both a challenge and an opportunity. Both students and mentors had lessons from this online experience that they will remember and use in the upcoming years. In this presentation, we present this experience from the angle of a single team mentorship and the lessons learned for similar future operations.

12:50 PM

Supporting Faculty during a pandemic: Creating collaborations to support Undergraduate Research

Donna Chamely-Wiik, Florida Atlantic University
Tricia L. Meredith, Florida Atlantic University

12:50 PM

As campuses quickly pivoted to remote teaching and engagement during COVID-19, faculty faced significant challenges in converting their research and mentorship with undergraduates. At Florida Atlantic University, we observed a decline in faculty engagement with undergraduate researchers during summer 2020. In an effort to better support faculty mentors, we established a collaboration between FAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry, the Division of Research, Center for E-Learning, University Libraries, and FAU High School. This team created a resource guide and hosted a panel session to assist faculty whose research and mentorship of undergraduates were impacted by going virtual. In this presentation, we will discuss survey data documenting the decline in undergraduate research engagement and challenges faculty faced, including creating a remote community of inquiry, remote access to university instruments/software, and consideration for alternative, remote projects. We will also share the resource document we created to assist faculty.

12:50 PM

Updates on FURC 2021 and Undergraduate Research Posters at the Capitol

Alicia Batailles, Florida State University
Latika L. Young, Florida State University
M. David Advent, Florida State Univeristy

12:50 PM

Come hear about the most recent updates for the 2021 Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) and the annual Undergraduate Research Posters at the Capitol event (P@C). FURC 2021, hosted from February 26-27, 2021 by the Florida Undergraduate Research Association and Florida State University, is one of the nation's largest multi-disciplinary research conferences and it open to all undergraduate researchers in the state of Florida to present their research in a poster format. In addition to relevant conference presentation experience, FURC boasts some of the best networking opportunities with fellow researchers and graduate programs across the country, as well as workshops and other professional development experiences. Although the conference will occur in a virtual format this year, we know that participants will find this to be an informative and engaging experience, whether as a presenter, attendee, faculty/staff member, or grad school representative. We have forged many new partnerships—particularly Whova, our conference management app—to bring you an immersive undergraduate research experience at #FURC2021, and we are excited to share details on what you and your students can expect! We will also briefly touch upon updates on the planning of this year’s P@C event, currently planned for March of 2021.