Illinois State's Graduate Research Symposium on March 28

More than 180 Illinois State University graduate students will participate in the annual University-wide showcase of research, scholarship and creative achievement, the Graduate Research Symposium, on Friday, March 28, in the Brown Ballroom and Old Main Room of Bone Student Center.  The Symposium is free and open to the public.

This year’s Symposium has changed to accommodate attendee interests by grouping presentations by discipline and faculty mentor.  For example, if someone wants to view and talk about student research on the topic of “Giving to your University” with faculty mentor Masoud Hemmasi from the Management and Quantitative Methods department, the posters and students will all be located in the same area as well as any other projects that Hemmasi has mentored.

This year, students from each project will give a five-minute oral presentation, will present a poster and will be available to answer attendee’s questions about the research project.

 The Symposium encourages cross-disciplinary associations and focuses on communicating research to the general public.  More than 70 faculty members will provide oral and written feedback to student participants.    

A few of the topics graduate students researched are:

• How will the increased use of corn for ethanol production impact local corn prices, and what needs to be done to produce grain as feedstock?
• What key points need to be addressed to increase U.S. graduation rates and to regain a leading position in mathematics, science and technology education?
• How do cyberbullies and their victims view their behavior?
• How health literate are U.S. adults, and how can they become more literate?
• Why are employees not participating in companies’ 401K plans?
• Why are people not choosing to use internet/online banking options?  
• How can theatre students re-imagine a Shakespeare play through the mafia culture to make it relevant for today’s audiences.

The Symposium, sponsored by the Graduate School, Research and Sponsored Programs, Honors Program and Milner Library, started 18 years ago to promote graduate student research.