Third National SURE Conference Celebrating Undergraduate Research to Take Place Virtually
Annual SURE Conference attracts over 500 STEM students and academic research supervisors
Athlone Institute of Technology, as part of the Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Network, will participate in the third annual SURE Conference which will go live on Friday, 16 October 2020. The conference will be opened online at 9:30 am by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD via Zoom.
This annual conference, which attracts over 500 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) students and academic research supervisors each year, reflects the work of the SURE Network - a collaborative partnership consisting of members from nine Irish higher education institutions. This is the first year the event is being hosted completely online.
Some 13 recent AIT graduates were selected from the Faculty of Science and Health to present their final year research at the conference through either oral or poster communications, and will compete with over 70 science graduates throughout Ireland on the day to present their work, under three themes: Analytical, Environmental and Pharmaceutical Science; Health Science and Nutrition; and Biological, Sport, Computing, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
“This year’s virtual and inclusive conference will be attended by over 500 undergraduate scientists and academic staff from around Ireland and is testament to the success of the SURE Network as an academic collaboration, with nine higher education institutions working together to embed research practice and excellence into undergraduate teaching in STEM," explained Dr Therese Montgomery, an AIT Lecturer and the deputy chair of the SURE Network and Co-Chair of the 2020 National Conference Co-ordinating Committee.
"The annual SURE conference provides an excellent platform from which to showcase the dynamic range of undergraduate research undertaken by STEM students across the IoT/TU sector and this year also highlights the unique adaptability of our STEM graduates, some of whom will be presenting research conducted remotely following the COVID-19 shut down in early March”
In addition, the SURE Network is delighted to announce the launch of the second edition of the SURE Network Undergraduate Research Journal SURE-J, as well as the 2020/21 SURE Network National Student survey, during the conference. The first edition of the SURE-J journal is available here.
Registration for the conference which is free of charge is now open on: [url=https://forms.gle/oVjzyhrPPeH3c9rj9]https://forms.gle/oVjzyhrPPeH3c9rj9[/url] For further details see: [url=http://sure-network.ie/conference/]http://sure-network.ie/conference/[/url] and follow the Twitter hashtag #SURE20.
Athlone Institute of Technology is a research-led third level institute with an applied, industry-focussed offering, world-class research and development capabilities, and state-of-the-art facilities. Winner of The Sunday Times Institute of the Year 2020 and 2018, AIT is Ireland’s top-ranked institute and is on track to become the country’s next technological university. AIT tops Ireland’s official league table for research and was listed in U-Multirank’s Top 25 Performing Universities in the World for Interdisciplinary Research in 2018 and 2019. For information relating to the institute’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, visit www.ait.ie.