The event, to be held on May 16, follows the Undergraduate Research Conference
By NOAH HARRIS — features@theaggie.org
On Friday, May 16, UC Davis’ Department of Psychology will be hosting their annual Spring Psychology Conference at the Center for Mind and Brain in East Davis. From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the conference will be an opportunity for psychology undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctorates to showcase work they have been doing.
Posters will be put out in the hallways of the building’s first floor and there will be three different times for them to be shown. In between, student speeches will be given, followed by an award ceremony at the end of the event.
In total, 38 different groups will be presenting their work, which will be shown primarily through posters. The event is similar to the Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) that took place at the University Credit Union Center a few weeks ago, where over 1,000 students presented their research.
The event is hosted by the Psychology Student Association and is an inclusive and cost-free conference — as Lucy Stowe, the president of the Psychology Student Association, explained.
“It’s open for undergrads, [graduate] students and even [post-doctorates] sometimes in the Psychology Department,” Stowe said. “Anybody who has a mentor in the Psychology Department or the Center of Mind and Brain [are] invited to submit work to present.”
For those interested in presenting next year, there are very few barriers in the way.
“We try to be as inclusive as possible,” Stowe said. “One of our main requirements though is to require them to have a faculty mentor, which is important just so that they’re connected to the department in some way.”
Jenna Distefano, the vice president of the Psychology Student Association, described the difference between this event and the URC.
“It’s such a unique opportunity, because people know about the URC, right?” Distefano said. “Everyone knows about the URC, but even people within [psychology] don’t know as much about this spring conference. I think if you are dedicated to research, it’s such a good opportunity to just get feedback or to get practice talking to a psychology audience.”
Stowe mentioned that the conference was welcome to both finished and unfinished research.
“We [accept] presentations of research at all stages, so it can be like a project proposal or like a scoping review or data collection, like preliminary data analysis, final data analysis,” Stowe said.
While the conference primarily caters to those interested in psychology, all are welcome to come and interact with those presenting.
“It’s definitely geared towards a psychology audience,” Stowe said. “That being said, a lot of the presenters that are giving talks like, or they’re all grad students or undergrads, they’re all students presenting. If you’re an undergrad curious about [a presentation], you can go and just talk to other undergrads and they’ll talk to you like an undergrad.”
While the conference is similar to past years, there is one change regarding the speeches segment, which had previously only been given by graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
“The poster session was mainly for undergraduates, the talk sessions [were] like 15 minute[s] [and] were for the graduate students mostly,” Distefano said. This year, we opened up the talk sessions to undergrads because we had a few undergraduates who were interested in giving talks instead of posters.”
Sophie Lance, a recent UC Davis alumna with a Bachelor of Science in psychology who is presenting at the conference, described the atmosphere that one might observe if they attend.
“The first floor of one of the main buildings [at the center for Mind and Brain] is just everyone lined up in the hallways,” Lance said. “You stand next to your poster board and people come around and ask questions and whatnot.”
Lance also spoke about the differences between this conference and the URC from a presenter’s perspective.
“It’s really crowded and hard to hear [at URC],” Lance said. “Even though it’s supposed to be formal, it’s almost informal. But with this one, it’s more intimate. Since it is only psych people, the questions that we would get asked might be a little more advanced about the topic.”
Stowe summed up the benefits of presenting for the event.
“This is a really great initial opportunity to kind of dip your toes in the water and get a sense for what it’s like,” Stowe said. “It’s really a nice friendly environment, and you’ll get a lot of one-on-one time with your peers and with faculty.”
With its taking place just a couple of weeks after the Undergraduate Research Conference, the annual Spring Psychology Conference can go under the radar of many students and staff at UC Davis. However, it can serve as an invaluable experience for those attending and sharing their work at the conference.
Written by: Noah Harris — features@theaggie.org
