sUAS vegetation mapping: Dean’s Advisory Board poster session

As part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), I am obligated to present my research at multiple poster sessions throughout the year including the Fall and Spring Undergraduate Research Days. I had never presented at a poster session before and was experiencing the uncertainty that goes along with doing something for the first time. How do I fit a whole summer’s worth of information onto a poster? How are these posters typically formatted? Who will I have to present my research to? Well, with help from the UW-Whitewater Undergraduate Research Program (URP), ideas on these questions started circulating through my head. With help from Dr. Compas, I put together a poster that reflects the progress I have made on my research project and uncertainties were clarified.

Before I started preparing my poster, I was invited to present at the Dean’s Advisory Board poster session the day before Fall Undergraduate Research Day. I took this invitation as an opportunity to practice presenting a poster for the first time. Maybe “practice” isn’t the right word because I presented to members of the Dean’s Advisory Board and Science Alliance, comprised primarily of successful UWW alumni. Nonetheless, this was an excellent experience for me even though, being my first time, my presentation was not as seamless as I would have liked. I talked through my research with professionals from around the country and received thought provoking feedback that could add to my research.

Learning from my mistakes, I presented at Fall Undergraduate Research Day in a more coherent manner, explaining my research more fluently to people of all disciplines.  I explained my research to Dr. Julio Rivera, a notable attendee and the founder of the Geographic Information Science (GIS) program, who had excellent feedback and question about my research.

I am now in the process of searching for a more specialized conference to present my finished work in the spring. Abstracts are due soon and the pressure is on!

Jeff presenting at Fall Undergraduate Research Day
Photo Credit: Tom Ganser

Here is a link to Jeff’s research poster shown above.