Submission Instructions

For Student Presenters

We recognize that you faced some unique challenges to your research this past year, and yet you produced truly impressive results. We are excited to announce that there will be both in-person and virtual presentation venues for Undergraduate Research Month at William and Mary, 2022.

All students who engaged in undergraduate research (funded or not) are encouraged to participate in Undergraduate Research Month. Click on the applicable category below to see instructions, submission information, and deadlines.

To Register

After reading the instructions below, you must register when your presentation will occur. To register complete the survey here. Registration for Undergraduate Research Month is due by Friday, February 25.

Honors and Honors Fellowship students

If you received an Honors Fellowship you must create a three-minute video that includes only one slide and will be showcased virtually as part of Undergraduate Research Month in late April. If you are currently pursuing an honors thesis but were not an Honors Fellow, we encourage you to participate as well! If your department has an Honors research showcase, you are still required to present at Undergraduate Research Month if you received funding from the Charles Center.

Students will follow the popular Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) format. The goals of this format are to cultivate students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. This is an intentionally challenging format that will prepare you well for graduate and professional presentations.

This format requires that you describe your research using both a video of you talking and ONE embedded PowerPoint slide. While 3 minutes might not seem like a lot of time, most researchers keep a 3-minute-long "elevator pitch" of their research on-hand to quickly explain their project at conferences, during interviews, when talking to colleagues, or for that chance meeting with a Nobel Laureate in the elevator. The reliance on only a single graphic image challenges you to think critically about how to tell your story.

This document provides some context and contains instructions and formatting standards to help you prepare your work for submission. Submissions are due by Sunday April 10 at 11:59 PM EDT.

All Other Undergraduate Researchers (this includes Monroe, WMSURE, Sharpe, and 1693 Scholars, as well as all other Charles Center-funded and all other students that are not presenting Honors theses)

This April, there will be a series of small, in-person digital poster sessions running every Monday through Thursday from 2-4pm in Blow Memorial Hall room 201. If students are unavailable to present at the time assigned for their research topic, they will default to creating a virtual video presentation for the Undergraduate Research Month website as described below. Whether or not you received Charles Center funding, we encourage you to present during Undergraduate Research Month. Both the in-person and virtual option are available to you, although we strongly encourage the in-person option so that you can receive feedback on your work from peers and faculty.

Your “digital poster” will be a PowerPoint presentation brought to the session on your laptop. Your laptop will be plugged into a video monitor provided at the session, with a regular HDMI port (please bring adaptor, a few will be on hand). Your presentation should have 5 slides telling the story of your research project. Also prepare a 5-minute verbal narrative that will be what you say when someone walks up to you and asks what your research is about. Each session will have ~10 presenters in academic disciplines related to yours. Please invite your friends and fans. Faculty will be informed of the dates, topics, and presenters, so hopefully they will stop by in good numbers. Please show up at 1:50pm if possible. If you are not available at the time assigned to your topic, please prepare and submit a video described below. It is acceptable to do both an in-person digital poster and an asynchronous video for the virtual symposium, if you want.
Create a 5-minute video presentation of your work. This is more similar to a poster session-style pitch that you might give at a typical research symposium. Please embed no more than 5 slides in your video. While 5 minutes might not seem like a lot of time, most researchers keep a 5-minute-long "elevator pitch" of their research on-hand to quickly explain their project at conferences, during interviews, when talking to colleagues, or for that chance meeting with a Nobel Laureate in the elevator! This document provides some context and contains instructions and formatting standards to help you prepare your work for submission.

Please consult your research advisor before planning your presentation. READ THROUGH THE ENTIRE instructional document BEFORE making your submission. Video Submissions are due by Sunday, March 20 at 11:59 PM EDT.