When faculty member Milmon Harrison talks about what a benefit the Undergraduate Research Conference is for students, he can speak first hand.
The assistant professor of African American and African studies is one of dozens of faculty mentors who are helping students prepare for this month's 13th annual conference. But less than a decade ago the tables were turned for the re-entry student; back then he was the one seeking mentoring.
The experience proved invaluable, he said. And the research he presented then ultimately formed the core of his new book.
The Undergraduate Research Conference runs 8 to 2 p.m. Saturday April 27 in Wellman and Freeborn halls. More than 150 UC Davis undergraduates will present, in oral or poster format, work they have performed under the auspices of faculty sponsors like Harrison.
"It offers an excellent opportunity for students to learn how to present research in a scholarly setting," Harrison said, recalling his own undergraduate conference experiences and how they helped give him a leg up when it came time for graduate school. "It was one of the things that made me so prepared that I could hit the ground running," he said.
Prepping for the conference with his mentor helped acclimate Harrison for academia and primed him for "the real-world things that happen when you go to a professional conference," he said.
From his mentor, Harrison learned everything from how to dress appropriately, to how to improvise if his computer didn't want to cooperate during a presentation. "They're the things you don't know who else to ask," he said, noting: "My faculty mentors then are still mentors to me." And his new book, "Name It and Claim It! The Word of Faith Movement, The Faith Message and the Disestablishment of Doctrinal Meaning," actually grew out of the same project Harrison focused on when he was a student presenter at the conference.
As he finishes the book, Milmon also has been meeting weekly with graduating senior Anne Beal, helping her prepare for a presentation focusing on racial reconciliation in local evangelical churches.
Topics for next week's conference will be varied; projects focus on research including how masculinity is portrayed in literature, enhancing sports performance through the study of motor movement, exploring the use of microcontrollers in robotics and the cultural precursors to modern-day Las Vegas.
The conference, said chairperson Tammy Hoyer, "demonstrates UC Davis' commitment to developing and encouraging research on all levels." Some students have been participating in research that is part of a grant awarded to faculty sponsors who have then assigned students to carry out specific components of the research, Hoyer said. Other students have initiated their own projects and have conducted independent research under faculty guidance.
Between 9 a.m. and noon the day of the conference, students - grouped by topic - will give 15-minute presentations in rooms throughout Wellman Hall. Talks will be followed by short question-and-answer periods. Faculty members, many of them sponsors of the presenters, moderate the oral sessions.
Poster-format displays run noon to 1 p.m. in Freeborn Hall. Students will present their research and discuss it with attendees in a more informal setting.
All members of the campus and Davis community are invited to attend one or all of the day's events, which begin with an 8 a.m. continental breakfast at Freeborn Hall. Joseph Silva, dean of the School of Medicine, will share opening remarks in the morning, and Provost Virginia Hinshaw will deliver the keynote address during a 1 p.m. lunch.
For more information, see http://advisingservices.ucdavis.edu or contact Hoyer at tahoyer@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-3000.