Paper Competition Information

Students participating in the Symposium are eligible for the Paper Competition. Papers will be judged by the Undergraduate Research Committee. However, the URC only accepts papers nominated by the faculty mentor who directly supervised the student's research project (to be) presented at the Symposium. Each faculty mentor may submit one paper. The URC does not accept submissions from students themselves without faculty nomination.

Deadline:

The deadline for submissions for the 2024 Paper Competition is Friday, March 29, 2024.

Please follow these steps:

Step 1: Review the paper competition guidelines.

Step 2: Faculty must include the paper nominated and their nomination letter.

In their nomination letters, the faculty mentor must address the significance of the research project and student findings, clarity of the writing, (any) contribution to the field, and why this paper is worthy of the award. The letter should be about one page. Since the goal of this award is to encourage academic excellence, faculty mentors should only nominate truly outstanding work.

Step 3: Faculty should save the document(s) as follows:

Save the paper as either a .docx or .pdf file. (.docx is preferred). Use the following naming conventions:

  • LastName-FirstName-paper.docx, or
  • LastName-FirstName-paper.pdf

Supplementary materials deemed relevant are also accepted. Use the same naming conventions, with "paper" replaced by appropriate descriptor (for example, LastName-FirstName-pictures.pdf ). PDF is preferred.

Faculty nomination letter should follow the following format:

  • LastName-FirstName-nomination. docx, or
  • LastName-FirstName-nomination.pdf

Step 4: Email your documents

Email documents to Robert Plymale.

For more information, contact Robert Plymale in Boatwright Library's Administrative Wing, Room 011.