After spending all summer in conducting laboratory research, field work, and technical analysis at the University of Washington, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, ten undergraduate research interns who participated in the 2011 PEER Internship Program, had the opportunity to share their research results to broad audience. With support from NSF, the students traveled from their home universities to the 2011 PEER Annual Meeting held in Berkeley, CA from September 30 – October 1. For many of the interns, this was their first experience at a professional conference.
The interns attended the plenary and break-out discussion sessions where they were exposed to numerous multi-disciplinary PEER research projects, but their big moment came on the evening on the second night. During a 2-hour poster session with at least 150 faculty, students, and practicing professional engineers in attendance, the interns were able to share their findings and network with the PEER research community.
Earlier that summer each student had designed a 30 in x 40 in color poster that described their research project goals, methods and results. When their project posters were placed amongst over 20 graduate student researchers funded on PEER Projects, the interns were able to appreciate their accomplishment over the summer and see some examples of what larger scale projects could be possible as a graduate student in the next stage of their educational journey.
Thanks to the all those in the PEER research community who attended the session.
Just before the start of the poster session, the interns were interviewed about their experiences in the PEER Internship Program. A compilation of their impressions of the program can be seen below or at the PEER YouTube Channel: http://youtu.be/l9SYf_ggpZ8
Funding for the 2011 PEER Internship Program as well as travel to the PEER Annual Meeting was provided National Science Foundation under Grant No. EEC-1063138. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).