Connection, Community and Confidence in Student Research

The 2022 ANU Student Research Conference (SRC) was held last week and was a great success with over 350 attendees across the three days of the conference. The SRC is an annual, multidisciplinary event hosted by the Engagement and Success team at the Australian National University (ANU). The intention of the conference is to support ANU undergraduate, Honours and Masters by coursework students to build skills to successfully communicate their research with impact and confidence, and to provide them with an opportunity to build a community in research. The ANU Student Research Conference showcases the research presentations of coursework students from a wide range of academic disciplines at ANU. SRC also includes a range of keynote addresses, workshops and other events which are open to all ANU students and staff.

These events were designed and developed by the SRC Co-design Committee with the support of staff over 27 weeks throughout 2022. For SRC Committee member Shaam Gupta, "the charm of SRC lies in student program designers, graphic designers and social media designers coming together with Engagement and Success staff to build the platform for student researchers to build their research presentation skills and confidence."

Throughout the conference, 28 ANU students presented their research to a general university audience. At the end of an engaging three days of presentations from a wide range of academic disciplines, three winners and three highly commended students were presented with their awards by Vice Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt.

Yalan Chen, who won the Masters (Coursework) presentation category, reflected that "it has been an amazing experience to be able to present my practice-led research paintings at the ANU Student Research Conference. I would like to thank the SRC team, ANU Academic Skills and my course convenors for their incredible support and encouragement. I highly recommend any undergraduate, honours of masters by coursework students to consider participating in the future. It is an excellent opportunity to practice presenting your research to the public. The SRC not only offers opportunity for presenters, but also assist attendees with invaluable research information sessions that will help develop your research career!"

Angus Padley, who won the Undergraduate presentation category also highlighted the unique scope of the conference: "SRC is an excellent opportunity to learn about a career in research. The experience of presenting original research at an academic conference is invaluable." 

Over half of all students presenting at this year's conference presented their research outside of the classroom for the first time, and the ANU Student Research Conference team congratulates all student presenters on their efforts and achievements as part of this year's conference.

2022 Winners and Highly Commended Students:

Undergraduate

• Winner: Angus Padley: Moral Foundations Theory in Australian Politics
• Highly Commended: Peter Phillipa- Judgment of the Emissions Reduction Fund with a purchase recommendation to the ANU

Honours

• Winner: Oliver Medd- An Oxygen Isotope-based Seawater Paleothermometer Calibration using Anadara trapezia Bivalves Grown in Aquaculture
• Highly Commended: Mikayla Hyland-Wood- Investigating carbon calculators for use in Papua New Guinean coffee production

Masters

• Winner: Yalan Chen- Researching the invisible: an exploration of the unconscious mind via automatism painting technique following analysis of Hilma af Klint's 'The Ten Largest' paintings
• Highly Commended: RUOXIN GUO- Changes since 2010 in a remnant threatened ecological community on the ANU campus

The 2022 ANU SRC winners are at the 2022 Australasian Council of Undergraduate Research Conference at The University of Sydney this week (27-30 September 2022) continuing to build their research communication and networking skills, connecting with students from around Australia.

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