Students to present their autumn quarter research and projects

Dec. 8 marks a high point for students who have been conducting research and working on projects over this quarter. On the Friday before finals week, many students will participate in autumn’s Student Showcase by presenting their completed projects to peers, faculty and staff.

Tacoma undergraduate students from all academic disciplines are invited to participate in the event.

Paul Cigarruista — program support supervisor for UWT’s Office of Undergraduate Education — says there is a need for this type of event:

“The Student Showcase provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to present their quarterly projects to a larger audience (the UWT campus community).”

Cigarruista is responsible for coordinating the Student Showcase each quarter. He says students could benefit from participating in the event.

“By participating, students gain valuable experience presenting their work and interacting with other students and faculty across campus,” Cigarruista said. “It also encourages open discussion, allowing students and audience members to learn from each other and explore research that is happening across campus.”

According to Cigarruista, past showcases have included “poster presentations, PowerPoint presentations, short films, poetry readings, short plays and different types of art work, including paintings and sculptures.”

Student Showcase was first started by Julie Masura — a sciences faculty member in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

At that time, Masura had asked if her class could present a microplastics project at UWaTERS — University of Washington Tacoma Environmental Sciences research symposium where students present their capstone research. After being denied, she decided to start Student Showcase for her classes and other students.

“Since I wasn’t allowed to have my students present at UWaTERS, I felt the showcase should be open to all students on campus to showcase their work,” Masura said.

The Office of Undergraduate Education took over the event in 2014 as part of its mission to serve undergraduate students. Since that time, the quarterly Student Showcase has continued Masura’s goal to include diverse disciplines and class standing.

Students interested in participating in a showcase must be current UWT undergraduate students and have a faculty sponsor. Faculty members may also register students to present their work.

Along with the autumn showcase Dec. 8, future Student Showcases will be held on March 9 for winter quarter and June 1 for spring quarter.

Although the sign up window for the autumn showcase has ended, interested students can sign up for future showcases on the OUE’s website when the survey is made available.