Maggie Mills, Lake City, MN, Presents at National Conference on Undergraduate Research

2018 Apr 16

Three students from the University of Minnesota Crookston traveled to Oklahoma to present at the 32nd annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) held at the University of Central Oklahoma. The conference, held in early April, was an opportunity for the students to showcase their undergraduate research projects.

The student presenters, joined by Assistant Professor Megan Bell, included Hannah Riveland, a senior from Moorhead, Minn., majoring in exercise science and wellness; Maggie Perrel, a recent alumna from New Germany, Minn., who double majored in biology and health sciences, and Maggie Mills, a junior majoring in communication from Lake City, Minn.

Formal presentations during the four-day conference were given by Hannah Riveland and Maggie Perrel on the "Effects of Anthropogenically-Derived Antibiotics on Microbial Distribution and Diversity" and Maggie Mills on "Evaluating Mediated Communication within Romantic Relationships." Faculty mentors for Perrel and Riveland were Assocaite Professor Brian Dingmann and Teaching Specialist Karl Anderson and faculty mentor for Mills was Bell.

The National Conference on Undergraduate Research 2018 conference theme, Connection to Place, recognizes the increasing need for direct relevance of an educational experience to the communities that await the college graduate in 2018 and beyond.

Background

The idea for a national conference open to all undergraduates was conceived and first implemented at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) in 1987. The first conference drew more than 400 participants from schools across the country. Now in existence for 30 years, the conference has become the leading conference for undergraduate research, hosting 3,500-4,000 students and their faculty mentors each year. One of the only conferences of its kind within the world, it provides students and faculty mentors from all disciplines the ability to present their research through posters, oral presentations, visual arts and performances. The conference is hosted at a different university across the U.S. each year.

The Council on Undergraduate Research's Executive Officer Elizabeth Ambos notes: "CUR's programs, including its signature student research conference, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), serve as "home" for all champions and practitioners of undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry."