Hundreds of University of Alabama at Birmingham undergraduate students will have the opportunity to showcase their research abstracts during UAB’s Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research’s annual Spring Expo. The event will be held at the UAB Student Hill Center and Bartow Arena on April 18-19.
The Spring Expo includes both undergraduate research and service learning. The Expo celebrates excellence in research, service learning, creative activity and scholarship by showcasing the endeavors of undergraduate students.
“Undergraduate research at UAB is conducted in every discipline,” said Gareth Jones, assistant director for the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research. “It can be a series of poems about the LGTBQ+ experience, a study of de-escalation policing techniques, designing an accessible picnic table for all users, or diving into new models for gene editing of rare human genetic disorders with the CRISPR/Cas9.”
“Our undergraduate students are conducting amazing research with the assistance of phenomenal mentors in the classroom, in independent study and in the many labs on campus. The UAB Spring Expo is the largest presentation of this research on campus and is a great way for anyone — faculty, staff, high school student and community member — to see this firsthand and talk to these astonishing students.”
For service learning, the Expo is an exposition of student and community engagement collaborations from students engaged in service-learning courses. The Expo gives service-learning students the opportunity to gain presentation experience and to celebrate the projects and collaborations between community partners, UAB and the greater community.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Tina Kempin Reuter, Ph.D., director of the UAB Institute for Human Rights and associate professor in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Political Science and Public Administration and Department of Anthropology. She will speak on “Human Rights and the City: Making Birmingham Accessible and Inclusive to All.”
Her research focuses on human rights with a particular emphasis on the struggle of vulnerable and marginalized populations. This includes minorities, persons with disabilities, refugees and migrants, women, children, the LGBTQ community, and people dealing with the consequences of poverty. Reuter studies how cities have become major actors in international human rights implementation and the implications of this shift in human rights policy.
“I am so excited and honored to be able to participate in this year’s Expo, hear about the amazing work of our undergraduate students and hopefully inspire them with my research,” Reuter said. “What an excellent opportunity to share knowledge and resources.”
There are nine main categories for both the oral and poster presentations: Arts and Humanities; Biological and Life Sciences; Business, Finance and International Studies; Education; Engineering; Health Sciences and Health Professions; Physical and Applied Sciences; Service Learning; Social and Behavioral Sciences; and Works in Progress.
The Expo schedule is as follows:
- Thursday, April 18 – Oral Presentations and Video Research Award Presentations, Hill Student Center, 12:30-4 p.m.
- Friday, April 19 – Poster Presentations, Bartow Arena, 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Winners will be announced at 4 p.m.