A. Purpose and Overview:

The UW-Eau Claire Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity (CERCA) is designed to give UW-Eau Claire students the opportunity to present the results of any research and scholarly creative activity. The event highlights student research accomplishments and the important role faculty and academic staff play as mentors in the scholarly activity process. CERCA encourages dissemination of research results from all disciplines represented in the UW-Eau Claire academic community.

The first UW-Eau Claire student research event, known as Student Research Day was in 1992 with 60 posters presented. The event grew to host 280 posters in 2012. In 2013, with the opening of the new Davies Student Center, the celebration is expanding to include oral presentations, performances, and displays in addition to posters.

B. Eligibility:

Any UW-Eau Claire student engaged in collaborative or independent research or scholarly creative work is eligible to apply. Participants in any discipline are welcome.

C. How to Apply

Writing Your Abstract

A key component to your CERCA application is your abstract (200 words maximum). This abstract will be included in the Proceedings Volume published online and in print.

An abstract summarizes the important qualities of your project, and typically includes:

• The problem or question you tackled, or the goal or hypothesis of the project (~1 sentence)
• The importance of the research project to your discipline or field of study (~1 sentence)
• A description of the methods or approach you used (~2 sentences)
• Main conclusions, outcomes, or recommendations, or, if the project is still in process, the kinds of results you expect to be able to report (~2 sentences)

Your abstract should:

• Use terminology that will be clear to a nonexpert audience and should avoid discipline-specific jargon.
• Define abbreviations not universally understood upon first use (include abbreviation in parentheses immediately after you first use the term; thereafter you can use the abbreviation).
• Be concise and strive for clarity.
• Be without spelling, grammatical, or factual errors.
• Be a maximum of 200 words in a single paragraph.
• Include a title.

Abstracts not adhering to these guidelines will be returned for revision prior to acceptance. If you need help writing an abstract, experienced writing tutors in the Center for Writing Excellence can assist you with any stage of abstract-writing. Stop by the second floor of McIntyre Library, Monday -Thursday 9 to 5 and Friday 9 to noon.

Information Needed for Your Application

In addition to attaching your abstract, you will need to decide which presentation format will best suit your research. This year, CERCA has 3 presentation formats:

    1. Oral Presentation: a 12 minute oral presentation followed by 3 minutes for discussion.

    2. Poster Presentation: a 42”x46” poster displayed for 2 days with a 2 hour presentation time each day.

    3. Performance with Lecture: up to 25 minutes time for a performance and lecture contextualizing the performance.

Your application will also require a faculty mentor to sign off on your application. For independent research (research that wasn’t preformed with a faculty mentor), the applicant must find a faculty mentor to sign off on their project.

Starting Your Form

The CERCA form is set up so that the lead student author submits the abstract; student co-authors should not submit the abstract and do not need to formally approve the form. To start a CERCA form in BP Logix, select “Start New form” and choose “ORSP” as the department. From there, select “Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity”. For more information on how to use BP Logix, please see the BP Logix eForm Tip Sheet.

Once the lead student author submits the form, it will be sent to the faculty mentor for approval or revision before being sent to ORSP.

Other Important Information

If you are presenting a poster, this application form will request your permission to include your poster in the online poster collection at MINDS@UW.

Still need help?

Please see the BP Logix eForm Tip Sheet. If you have questions or need further assistance, please contact ORSP at 715-836-3405 or orsp@uwec.edu.

D. Deadline for Application:

The UW-Eau Claire Celebration of Research and Creative Activity is scheduled for May 1–May 2, 2013 in Davies Center. Applications must be submitted online by March 7.

E. Assistance with Preparation for the CERCA Event

Don’t write alone! Abstract-writing assistance will be offered in through the Center for Writing Excellence.

Poster design, preparation, and printing assistance is offered through Building Information Technology Skills (BITS). Sign up for a Poster Design Workshop or view a video tutorial.

All posters should include the official UW-Eau Claire seal and wordmark in agreement with the University Communications Graphic Standards Guide. Each poster should list the title of the project, the student(s)’ names, the faculty mentor name(s), and the department name(s). The poster dimensions should not exceed 46x46 inches to fit the poster board. (Note that posters printed on campus are limited to 42x46 inches.) The acknowledgements section should mention the source of your research funding, if applicable.

Please visit the LTS Research Poster Printing Service site for more information about printing and designing your poster.