School's successful conference showcases undergraduate student research

Honours years students enjoyed a successful Undergraduate Research Conference, the first organised by the School, which showcased the research undertaken by students in their Senior Honours and MPhys projects, highlighted projects where new discoveries have led to the publication of undergraduate student work, and illustrated some of the research opportunities for students beyond their degree.

As part of their degree programme, year 4 and year 5 students undertake projects in order to develop independence in the skills of experimental design and project management, and the presentation of project results, methods, results and conclusions in a suitable format tests students’ communication skills.

During the conference, students had the opportunity to view the Senior Honours Project Posters produced by year 4 students and the MPhys Project Public Summaries produced by year 5 students, with prizes awarded to outstanding posters and summaries. 

The conference also provided students with the opportunity to learn from alumna Anna de Graaff whose talk on ‘A search for missing baryons in the cosmic web’ reflected on her undergraduate project which became a refereed journal paper, and Dr Paul Clegg who described his supervision of a student’s project which formed the basis of a published paper.

Prof Judy Hardy, the School's Director of Teaching commented:

This conference gave our students a great opportunity to learn about the project work completed by their peers and learn about the new discoveries which have stemmed from such projects over the years.