Frequently Asked Questions

We invite research projects from all disciplines and encourage students to submit creative work for the symposium as long as it has an original, scholarly aspect to it. For all submissions, students must be working under the guidance of a faculty mentor who can speak to the quality of the research; this includes students working on faculty research as well as students working on their own research under the supervision of faculty. Capstone projects and senior theses are good examples of the second type of student research. The Undergraduate Research Symposium is not an appropriate venue for “position papers,” where students are presenting opinions rather than scholarly research.

Very generally speaking, most research is characterized by the evidence-based exploration of a question or hypothesis that is important to those in the discipline in which the work is being done. Students, then, must know something about the research methodology of a discipline (what constitutes “evidence” and how do you obtain it) and how to decide if a question or line of inquiry that is interesting to that student is also important to the discipline, to be able to embark on a research project.

Yes. You are welcome to apply if you are a UW undergraduate, regardless of where you actually performed your research. If you did your research project at another institution, you will need to get the abstract approved by the faculty mentor you worked with there.

Your primary mentor is the individual who approves your application title and abstract/artist statement.

A primary mentor is required to be the most senior research advisor for your project: a professor or principal investigator (PI). For example, your mentor might have one of the following titles:

• Assistant Professor
• Associate Professor
• Professor
• Research Professor
• Teaching Professor
• Professor of Clinical Practice

Mentors that have one of the following titles cannot be your primary mentor for the application, but can be a secondary mentor: Lecturer, Instructor, Post-Doc, Grad Student, Fellow, PhD Student, Research Scientist, Staff Scientist, or staff member.

How do I know my mentor’s title?
If you are unsure about your mentor’s title, you can:

• Ask your mentor directly if they meet the requirement.
• Check their email signature for their title.
• Look up their title on your lab or research group’s website.
• Visit your department’s website and check the “People” or “Faculty” page.

Your primary mentor plays an important role in getting your application approved. After you submit your application, your mentor will get an email with your project details (title, abstract or artist statement) and a deadline to review your application.

Here is what your mentor can do after reviewing your application:

• Approve: Your mentor approves your application title and statement.
• Request Revision: Your mentor requests that you make edits to or revise a piece of your title or statement.
• If this happens, you will work with your mentor to update your application and resubmit by a new deadline.
• Reject: Your mentor rejects your application. If this happens, we recommend that you speak with your mentor to understand why and discuss next steps.
• Rejections are rare. Good communication with your mentor about your application can help avoid this.

Yes. You do not need to have completed your research to be considered. Many students present research that is ongoing. It is perfectly acceptable to share preliminary results or anticipated findings at the Symposium.

Due to space constraints and to allow more students access to presentation opportunities, students can only present one individual presentation. Students may participate in one additional group presentation as a co-presenter. We ask that students refrain from participating in more than two presentations to avoid any scheduling complications.

Certainly! Event registration will be recommended to receive event updates but not required. A registration link will be available approximately 1 month prior to the event. Please note that registrants and attendees will be required to comply with any campus COVID policies: https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/category/campus-operations/

Absolutely! We encourage visual and performing artists to submit applications to participate in the Symposium. We have had a wonderful variety of art students present in the past on everything from their sculpture and photography to new techniques being used in actor training.

Yes, all presenters have access to an abstract writing video, where you will learn the basics of abstract construction and see various examples. We also encourage you to take a look at the proceedings from previous years; they will give you a variety of examples of student-written abstracts. You may also view our guidelines here.

Yes, you can apply with an artist statement that is specific to the painting/work to be presented. Please include your ideas, where you get your ideas and/or your process, and what the content of the work is about to help the viewer understand the work. If your work is still in process, you might conceive of the abstract as more of a “project proposal” in which you discuss your intended project and the ideas behind it. You may view our guidelines here.

No. All undergraduates currently doing research with a faculty mentor are encouraged to apply.

Yes. All Mary Gates Scholars who received Research Scholarships are required to participate in the Symposium at least once as part of their award responsibilities. If you are working on a project different than the one for which you received your scholarship and you prefer to present on that project, this is fine.

Yes. All Mary Gates Research Scholars are required to present and must submit an application.

You are welcome to note those changes as you develop your final presentation; this might include slightly amending your abstract included in your final presentation. However, the abstract submitted with your application, which will be published in the Symposium Event Schedule, cannot be amended after the revision window closes.

There are two possibilities:

1. If you are a UW student, you should not need an invitation code. In some cases, however, students who have a job on campus or have received scholarships will be identified as “Staff” by the application system. To correct this, please:
   1. Log out completely from the application system.
   2. Close all your browser windows.
   3. Re-open your browser and access the application before logging in to any other UW systems (UW Google Apps, Catalyst, MyUW, etc.)
      Google Chrome Users: Another option is to try accessing the application from an Incognito tab
2. If you are not a UW student, contact undergradresearch@uw.edu to see if you are eligible to present.

Yes, you can contact the Coordinator of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services at least 10 working days before the event to request accommodations. Please find more information on the Disability Services Office website here: https://hr.uw.edu/dso/deaf-or-hard-of-hearing/overview/.

Leading up to the Symposium, presenters are given an opportunity to nominate their mentor for the award. Nominations are considered by a small review committee of faculty and staff. UW faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and research staff are all eligible for nomination.

First, please note that our application platform, EXPO, is optimized for use with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers and may not function properly when viewed with Internet Explorer, especially older versions. If you are still having issues while using Firefox or Chrome, please email undergradresearch@uw.edu with a specific description of the problem.

Note: If you are accessing our online application system for the first time or in a different browser, you may receive a message similar to the one below and will need to install the UW Service Certificate Authority.

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Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site’s identity can’t be verified.
What Should I Do?

If you usually connect to this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn’t continue.

Information about the UW Service Certificate Authority: