Peer Beyond Graduate Research Symposium

January 28 – 30, 2020 | Rozsa Centre, University of Calgary

The Peer Beyond Graduate Research Symposium offers graduate students the unique opportunity to present their innovative research in a multi-disciplinary conference. This year’s theme, Innovation through Collaboration, celebrates the shared success of establishing new innovations and connections through collaborative research. Collaborations may take the form of collaborative partnerships, allowing for ground-breaking technological advancements, or collaborative work through the incorporation of different research methods. Opportunities to participate in cutting-edge workshops on the conference theme will also be offered to help student professional development. Hosted by the Graduate Students’ Association, this conference is intended to showcase the exciting research conducted at the University of Calgary and to cultivate interdisciplinary collaborations within the graduate community.

Any graduate student interested in sharing their research, networking with like-minded individuals and/or discovering collaboration opportunities is encouraged to submit an abstract or sign-up to participate in the day’s events. Undergraduates, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend. Registration for the conference is free.

Get more information on:

• Presentation Options
• Innovation Day
• Workshops
• Symposium Schedule
• Guidelines for Submission
• Register to Attend

*UPDATED*

Maybe you have an idea or ground-breaking research that you’d like to get out into the world. Or, you don’t have an idea just yet, but you’d like to see what’s possible. Or, you think it could be interesting to help bring someone else’s idea to life. Innovation Day is for you!

The morning session is a half-day workshop to learn and practice taking your research, budding idea, or a need you see from concept, to plan, to pitch. You will:

• Learn essential concepts of innovation and entrepreneurial thinking
• Map an idea or research for business, policy, or non-profit applications
• Develop the idea for practical use (product prototype, policy, draft, etc.)
• Prepare a basic pitch (with the option to present it for feedback)
• Learn and decide where to go next

Over the lunch break, connect with leaders and coaches from the innovation ecosystem: Hunter Hub, Innovate Calgary, and The Creative Destruction Lab. Join peers who are on the path to entrepreneurship or impact deployment and learn about their process.

After lunch you will have 30 minutes to refine your pitch from the morning before presenting for potential prizes.

There are two options to participate in Innovation Day:

Option 1: Submit a proposal for an innovation pitch. Deadline: January 17, 2020
You can attend the morning workshop and further refine your idea and pitch. You will be guaranteed a chance to present your pitch to the audience, get expert feedback, and receive prizes. To submit your proposal, click HERE. You will also need to register – click HERE.

Option 2: Register as a general participant.
Join us for the morning workshop as an individual or bring a group. Come with or without an idea. You’ll have the chance to work with other grads to develop a unique idea and a pitch. You will be offered the opportunity to pitch your idea to the audience and receive expert feedback. Limited number of pitch opportunities. To register for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day, Day 3 of Peer Beyond, click HERE.

Undergraduates, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend. Registration for the conference is free, and includes lunch and snacks.

You can register to attend 1, 2 or all 3 days. Pick the days that interest you the most or attend all three days for the greatest impact. If you are presenting at the symposium, you are required to register for the day(s) you are presenting.

For registration inquiries, please contact events.gsa@ucalgary.ca.

Click HERE to register.

Each presenter will have approximately 12 minutes to speak and an additional 3 minutes for questions. Please remember that this is a multi-disciplinary conference, so keep jargon to a minimum and try to make presentations accessible for all.

Each presenter will have only 5 minutes to present their research, and an additional 5 minutes for feedback and questions. This is a great opportunity to practice for 3-Minute Thesis, as members from My Grad Skills will be present to evaluate the talks and provide feedback.

Each presenter will create a poster describing their work, highlighting the main points of their research. Posters will be displayed in hardcopy format.

Students wishing to display artistic pieces, such as photography, fine art and sculptures, or exhibits, such as proto-types or architectural models; or performances, such as dances or music, are encouraged to submit an abstract. Each presenter will have an opportunity to engage conference attendees in constructive and collaborative conversation.

Please Note: Each presenter will be assigned one of the following presentation formats. Depending on the number of abstracts received, you may not receive your preferred method of presentation.

Qualtrics is an online survey tool that allows you to build, distribute, and analyze responses to surveys. The UofC’s Qualtrics licence covers student users. In this session we will cover how to access Qualtrics, and how to create surveys within the tool. Question types will be covered, along with how to use skip and branch logic to redirect respondents based on their responses. This session will be useful to anyone planning to conduct a survey as part of a graduate research or entrepreneurship project.

Presenter: Heather Ganshorn is a librarian with experience supporting science, engineering, and health sciences disciplines. She is currently the subject librarian for biological sciences, and provides support to researchers in all disciplines around research data management and data management planning.

How do you stand out in a crowded field of researchers? How can you present a coherent picture of your research and its impact? How can you learn who is citing you and what these data actually mean?

Developing a digital profile for your scholarly work is often the first step. This workshop will

• cover key strategies and tools for building and enhancing scholarly online profiles.
• provide an introduction to scholarly profiles such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and ORCID.

The workshop will incorporate hands-on practice. If possible, please bring a laptop or tablet with internet connection (no special software required).

Presenter: Heather Ganshorn is a librarian with experience supporting science, engineering, and health sciences disciplines. She is currently the subject librarian for biological sciences, and provides support to researchers in all disciplines around research data management and data management planning.

In this session we will explore various aspects of ethical decision-making for graduate students. This includes, but is not limited to: academic integrity (including citing and referencing); ethical conduct in research (including research data and working in a lab); publication ethics (including the complexities around self-citation and self-plagiarism); and ethical decisions as a teaching assistant. This will be an interactive session with activities and scenarios to frame a productive conversation.

Presenter: Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Werklund the Educational Leader in Residence, Academic Integrity for the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on academic integrity with specific interests in plagiarism prevention and contract cheating. She is passionate about supporting graduate students to excel with integrity.

Attend this workshop to learn techniques for crafting an engaging research talk that is memorable, visual, and accessible to any audience. Attendees will have time to apply their learning through individual and group exercises such as analysis of 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) talks, crafting an outline using the COMPASS Message Box (compassscicomm.org/), and applying design principles to create memorable and effective slides. Time will also be made to practise delivering and receiving constructive feedback on your own short talk. Bring your laptop, and a copy of one of your presentations or a data set/results to work through during the session.

Workshop topics include:

• a review of the internationally recognized 3MT competition, and how it uses an effective style to tell the story of your research to any audience
• techniques for crafting an engaging research presentation
• how to address cognitive biases that contribute to nerves when public speaking
• how Aristotle’s 3 Pillars of Persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos) can be used as a basis to craft an effective presentation
• Applying design principles to create visually engaging slides

Presenter: Dr. Tara Christie, PhD, alumna of the Universities of Manitoba and Calgary and former molecular biology graduate student turned University Administrator, knows first-hand the importance of skill development. Tara has a decade of experience in university administration focusing on program development and strategic management. She has managed the University of Calgary, My GradSkills professional development program, including the development and oversight of the novel Transformative Talent Skills Internship Program, since its inception in 2012. Tara is especially passionate about communication skills, utilizing her research background and training in graphic design to lead the research communication skills training for the UCalgary 3 Minute Thesis competition (proudly announcing two national winners in 2015, 2018, and the National People’s Choice winner in 2019).

Attend this 90 minute session to learn more about how you can apply design principles to create memorable and effective slides for your research presentations. Bring your laptop, and a copy of one of your presentations or a data set/results to work through during the session.

Presenter: Dr. Tara Christie, PhD, alumna of the Universities of Manitoba and Calgary and former molecular biology graduate student turned University Administrator, knows first-hand the importance of skill development. Tara has a decade of experience in university administration focusing on program development and strategic management. She has managed the University of Calgary, My GradSkills professional development program, including the development and oversight of the novel Transformative Talent Skills Internship Program, since its inception in 2012. Tara is especially passionate about communication skills, utilizing her research background and training in graphic design to lead the research communication skills training for the UCalgary 3 Minute Thesis competition (proudly announcing two national winners in 2015, 2018, and the National People’s Choice winner in 2019).

Peer Beyond 2020 Schedule

This is the final schedule for Peer Beyond Symposium.

1. Abstract submissions should be emailed to the organizing committee at (academic.gsa@ucalgary.ca) as a PDF (with the filename “FirstName_LastName”) by the January 4th deadline
2. The Abstract Submission Form found HERE must be used
3. Abstracts should be written in 12-pt font Calibri
4. Abstracts that do not meet the required format will not be considered
5. Submission of the abstract constitutes permission for the conference organizers to publish the abstracts in either printed or electronic format
6. SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENDED: 11:59 pm January 4, 2020.

If you have any questions, please contact academic.gsa@ucalgary.ca