This year, hundreds of Ohio State undergraduate students utilized the services and events of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry (URCI) to contribute to faculty-mentored undergraduate research opportunities across all academic disciplines.
New in the 2024–2025 academic year, URCI piloted a new workshop series titled “Situating Your Research.” The series was designed to help students build their skills related to engaging with scholarship, discussing their research, designing posters and presentations, and reflecting on their overall research experience. URCI partnered with several offices across campus to support these workshops, specifically: Ohio State University Libraries; Office for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences; and The Center for the Study of Teaching and Writing. These workshops served over 100 students who, after attending the sessions, reported they:
- Had a better understanding of how to read scholarly literature
- Knew how to create a poster that conveys their research process
- Felt more prepared to present their research at the Denman Forum and Spring Festival
Looking ahead, URCI will build on this pilot year to expand their offerings to support more students at every stage of the research process, specifically engaging with faculty and navigating multiple priorities while achieving success.
Through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP), URCI was able to directly sponsor 16 students this past academic year in their undergraduate research pursuits. The program funds students who would otherwise be conducting research in unpaid positions.
Historically a summer research opportunity program, URAP expanded into the academic year to allow students researchers in fields where faculty mentored research does not happen robustly over the summer—namely the arts and humanities—with the opportunity to participate. A wide range of majors were represented in this new cohort, including Moving Image Production, Theatre Performance, Spanish, English, Industrial Design, and Art History, among others. Given the success of this new program, UR&CI plans to continue offering both a summer and a fall/spring URAP experience for the wide range of Ohio State students participating in undergraduate research.
Through the Situating Your Research series and programs like URAP, students culminated their research projects in three university-wide presentation opportunities: the 30th annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival, and the 3-Minute Thesis Competition.
More than 250 senior student researchers participated in the Denman Forum. 47 students and 4 faculty research mentors were recognized for their work at our annual Denman and Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Awards ceremony on March 6.
The Spring Undergraduate Research Festival and 3-Minute Thesis competition engaged more than 145 students in presenting their work. Providing high quality opportunities for students to practice communicating their research to a broad audience continues to be a cornerstone of URCI programming as they support students from the first steps to getting started in research through graduation.
URCI looks forward to welcoming more students into Ohio State’s vibrant research community, ensuring every Buckeye has the tools to turn curiosity into discovery.