Register for the Fall Research Symposium

Registration Opens October 1

Registration opens October 1 and closes at 11:59 pm on November 1
Review the registration information for more details

Eligibility

The Fall Student Research Symposium is a non-competitive event and all eligible applicants are accepted. In order to register, you must:

Be registered for Fall semester
Be a USU undergraduate or graduate student at the Logan or a Statewide campus or an online program
Have a mentor (only faculty and postdoctoral researchers may serve as primary mentors, though graduate students may provide the majority of your mentorship)
Have a research or creative project in any stage of completion, including in design stage through to completed works

Students may present individually or in groups of up to four students, provided all group members are eligible per the criteria above. For projects with multiple presenters, the group should select a ‘lead presenter’ to be the contact point for your presentation. The lead presenter is responsible for logistical management of the project, including scheduling, submitting the required online materials, and communicating with symposium organizers. The lead presenter will not be identified on the day of the presentation or in the public online materials.

Additionally, you will be asked to sign the following waivers as part of your registration:

I understand that the Fall Student Research Symposium will be open to the public for the duration of the event.
I understand that by submitting my abstract for the Fall Student Research Symposium, it will be considered for inclusion on Digital Commons (USU's open-access repository of research).
I understand that I will be required to submit an electronic version of my poster or slides in advance of my presentation.

If you are unable to sign one or more of these waivers, please contact UR@usu.edu to discuss alternative options to participate in this event.

Timeline for all Presenters

Registration Process

Registrations for FSRS will open on October 1 and close at 11:59pm on November 1. All registrations that meet eligibility will be accepted.

Schedule Process

This event will be synchronous: Students will present at set times, regardless of presentation format. 50-minute sessions will be held each hour throughout the event day, with 10-minute set-up/clean-up breaks between sessions, and students are expected to participate for the duration of their chosen sessions. Please review your format-specific information below for details on what to expect during your session.

Sessions will be selected during your initial registration. These sessions will be filled on a first-come basis, so we encourage any group presenters to discuss their availability with their primary presenter in advance of registration. Presentations that are not scheduled into a session are not reviewed by our guest evaluators and will not receive feedback on their work.

Submitting Material

Students will have from December 1 until 11:59pm on December 5 to submit the required online components of their presentations.

These submissions will then be available to the public for the duration of the academic year online. View last year’s event.

This online submission will include:

Your final title and abstract
The final copy of your slides or poster

ALL presenters, regardless of format choice, must submit their materials via Symposium by this deadline to be eligible for feedback from our guest evaluators.

Event Day

The 2025 Fall Student Research Symposium will take place on December 4, 2025.

Regardless of your presentation format, you will spend your scheduled 50-minute session actively participating in the event. Review your format-specific information below to learn about what your participation will look like.

Registration Materials

ALL student presenters, regardless of format choice, will be asked to include the following information in their registrations:

Agreement of the terms of the event (see ‘Eligibility’, above)
Presentation information
- Format choice (see below to determine the best format for your work)
- Discipline category
  - Arts
  - Engineering
  - Humanities
  - Life Science
  - Physical Science
  - Social Science & Education
- Title
- If an in-person performance
  - Brief description
  - Duration
  - Equipment needs
- If an in-person art display
  - Brief description
  - Dimensions
  - Equipment needs
- Presenter information (for all group members)
  - First and last name
  - Preferred pronouns
  - Class (freshman-senior)
  - Email address and cell phone number
  - College and department
  - A-number
- Mentor information
  - First and last name
  - Email address

These components of your presentation will be submitted in December and are not required in the registration form.

Online Oral/Performance

This format is ideal for students who are unable to physically be at the Merrill-Cazier Library on USU’s Logan Campus on the day of the event. Statewide and online students are especially encouraged to consider this format or the online poster/exhibit format.

Oral presentations are great for more experienced presenters and for students whose projects are in later stages of completion. A longer and more structured presentation allows you to delve more deeply into your project to a more committed audience, as opposed to the shorter interactions of a poster presentation.

This format is also great for creative inquiry students whose projects will culminate in a performance, such as a theatrical reading or musical piece. Performance presentations are also welcome to be submitted within posters or as oral presentations/slides if preferred; you should review the time restrictions for each format before deciding what the best fit for your work will be.

Depending on availability, we may have some 15-minute spaces available for online or in-person performances (as opposed to 7-minute presentations).

The Presentation

Your online poster/exhibit presentation will have three components:

A slide deck or other pdf file serving as your visual aid
A three-minute video where you talk about your work
A live Zoom video conference session where you will give a 7-minute presentation while sharing your slide deck, followed by a 3-minute Q&A period

The lead presenter for your project will submit the slide deck/pdf file and the video by the pre-submission deadline.

During your assigned session, all group members will attend the Zoom session and will present to the other students in that session and any attendees. Questions will be asked following your presentation on the Zoom call; in addition, some attendees may use the ‘comments’ feature of your online video and slide submission, which will post beneath your presentation and be available to the public during and after the event.

We will have additional information and resources for you, from slide design to video streaming and recording tips, closer to the event!

Session Format

Online oral/performance presentations will be organized in the same synchronous, 50-minute session schedule as our in-person presentations.

During your session, all presenters should be attending the Zoom video conference call. We request that, out of respect for other presenters in your session, you commit to attend the full 50-minute call.

Outside of your session, we request that you to browse other presentations and actively participate as an attendee for other students via the ‘comments’ feature of our event platform.

The ‘comments’ feature will continue to be available after this event. We encourage presenters to continue responding to comments after the event, but you are only required to respond to questions given in your Zoom call.

Evaluators

One of the benefits of presenting at FSRS is in the feedback you’ll receive from our guest evaluators. Evaluators are USU graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, Office of Research staff, and faculty.

We will share the evaluation rubric with all presenters ahead of the event, and encourage you to think about each category of it as you build your presentations. While the Fall SRS is non-competitive, our spring SRS uses the same rubric and awards are given to the top-ranked presentations in each category. Evaluators will provide you scores on each part of the rubric.

For online oral/performance presentations, evaluators will ask you questions about your work immediately after your presentation via Zoom. Other attendees may ask you questions via the ‘comments’ section of our platform, and evaluators may follow up with further questions there, but you will be scored only on your ability to answer during the Zoom session.

In addition to scoring you on our rubric, evaluators will also provide you with invaluable written feedback and comments about your presentation. All feedback is submitted to the lead presenter via email after the event.

In-Person Poster/Exhibit

This format is ideal for students who are able to physically be at the Merrill-Cazier Library on USU’s Logan Campus on the day of the event.

Poster presentations are great for first-time presenters and for students whose projects are in earlier stages of completion. Rather than a longer and more structured presentation to a group of attendees, a poster allows you to give a shorter summary of your project and then have a more conversational interaction with individual attendees.

This format is also great for creative inquiry students whose projects will culminate in physical art, from paintings to pottery, as an exhibit (though these physical pieces can be presented in a poster or oral presentation format if preferred).

The Presentation

Your in-person poster/exhibit presentation will have three components:

A poster or art display serving as your visual aid
A pdf file of your visual aid, to be available online
A three-minute video where you talk about your work

The lead presenter for your project will submit the poster/pdf file and the video by the pre-submission deadline. During your assigned session, all group members will be present with your physical poster or exhibit in the Library.

In addition to the in-person presentation, you may use the ‘comments’ feature of your online presentation post to address any questions that online attendees submit, which will post beneath your presentation and be available to the public during and after the event.

We will have additional information and resources for you, from poster templates to video recording tips, closer to the event!

Session Format

In-person poster/exhibit presentations will be organized in the same synchronous, 50-minute session schedule as our online presentations.

During your session, you will be expected to be physically present next to your poster or display. All presenters (including group members) should be available for the duration of the session to present to attendees and evaluators.

The ‘comments’ feature accompanying your online materials will continue to be available after this event. We encourage presenters to continue responding to comments after the event, but do not require this.

Evaluators

For in-person poster/exhibit presentations, evaluators will ask you questions about your work at your poster in the Library.

In-Person Oral/Performance

This format is ideal for students who are able to physically be at the Merrill-Cazier Library on USU’s Logan Campus on the da of the event.

Depending on availability, we may have some 15-minute spaces available for online or in-person performances (as opposed to 7-minute presentations).

The Presentation

Your in-person poster/exhibit presentation will have three components:

A slide deck or other pdf file serving as your visual aid
A three-minute video where you talk about your work
A live, in-person session where you will give a 7-minute presentation, followed by a 3-minute Q&A period

The lead presenter for your project will submit the slide deck/pdf file and the video by the pre-submission deadline.

During your assigned session, all group members will attend the in-person session at your assigned classroom in the Library and will present to the other students in that session and any attendees. Questions will be asked following your presentation; in addition, some attendees may use the ‘comments’ feature of your online video and slide submission, which will post beneath your presentation and be available to the public during and after the event.

We will have additional information and resources for you, from slide design to video streaming and recording tips, closer to the event!

Session Format

In-person oral/performance presentations will be organized in the same synchronous, 50-minute session schedule as our online presentations.

During your session, all presenters should be physically in your assigned classroom. We request that, out of respect for other presenters in your session, you commit to attend the full session.

Outside of your session, you can browse other presentations and actively participate as an attendee for other students in other in-person sessions as well as via the ‘comments’ feature of our event platform.

Evaluators

For in-person oral/performance presentations, evaluators will ask you questions about your work immediately after your presentation in the classroom. Other attendees may ask you questions via the ‘comments’ section of our platform, and evaluators may follow up with further questions there, but you will be scored only on your ability to answer during the live session.