Brooke Lentz gives a presentation at the undergraduate research conference in

the Memorial Union. Photo by Nicholas Nelson/The Dakota Student.

Students and faculty arrived at the River Valley Room in the Memorial Union to watch senior honors students present their thesis projects at the Undergraduate Research Conference.

These theses are part of a year-long project that students in the honors program and from around campus begin in their junior year.

“The thesis project is the culminating experience for students in the honors program every year,” honors professor Robin David said.

The topics students selected varied widely across disciplines.

In the final semester of their junior year, students begin to plan their thesis projects and they find a faculty member to work with them before completing the project over the course of their senior year.

“A lot of our students will be going on to graduate school, and the undergraduate research program is a great stepping stone for them, because what might be expected of them in graduate school is that they are capable of doing their own research, and they are already doing that as undergraduates,” David said.

The event was open to the public, and was a major part of the event’s goals.

“The purpose of holding the event publically was to help spread undergraduate research,” honors professor Brian Schill said. “Obviously, graduate students already do a lot of research, but our goal is to cultivate the idea that undergraduates should be doing research too.”

Alex Bertsch is the opinion editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].