Exploring Careers
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Summer Research Conference
This annual conference features presentations by students who completed a summer research project under the guidance of faculty at Towson University or another institution.
present your work
Save the Date
The date for this year’s Summer Research Conference is September 24, 2026, starting at 4 pm. To submit a presentation or to register to attend, please complete this form by September 16.
Please email ourci AT_TOWSON for more information.
The Summer Research Conference is an opportunity for undergraduate researchers conducting research at TU to showcase the scholarly work and creative endeavors they are engaged in through research talks or poster presentations.
Who Can Present?
Any TU student, including graduate students, may present during this conference. Non-TU students working with a TU-affiliated research program or mentor at TU can present as well.
Why Should I Present?
Being directly involved in the process of discovery is a great experience and provides many skills that will support your future success. Continuing the research process and presenting your work will prove invaluable in your efforts to present your work in the future – at other conferences, with potential employers, and with prospective graduate school programs. Communication is a key skill for any job and giving a presentation to a general audience is great practice for the future.
The undergraduate research conferences, including the Summer Research Conference, are open to the public and showcase the research of TU students. Additionally, the Summer Research Conference is a great opportunity to present your work in a low-stakes, non-judged environment if you plan to present during a future research conference.
The summer conference will feature two types of presentations: poster presentations and 10-minute oral presentations. An academic presentation is a summary of your research, scholarly, or creative project in a concise and visually engaging way. It must be academically sound, highlighting the context of your work (through photographs, maps, citations of published results, etc.), your methods, and results (with graphs, charts, photographs, etc.).
Advice for Oral Presentations
- Please prepare a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation; there will be a 5-minute question and answer period after your talk.
- A good guideline for an oral presentation is one slide per minute, so your slide deck should have around 10 slides. Too many slides will result in you clicking through them really fast and not much will stick with the audience; too few slides mean you will have to remember a lot of what you need to say without sufficient visuals to support your points.
- Think of text on the slide as bullet points or “headlines” and avoid complete sentences. The font should be big enough to be readable by the audience. Usually there should not be more than 5-7 lines of text per slide.
- Use visuals to enhance your presentation: photographs, images, graphs, and tables. Be sure to properly cite the sources of any visual images that are not your own.
- There are PowerPoint templates already “branded” with Towson University logo and colors. You can find them under “Templates” on the Design Tools page.
Advice for Poster Presentations
Your printed poster should be 2 to 4 feet wide. TU has a poster printer in the Cook Library where your poster can be printed at no cost to you; if you use their service, choose the 42” x 42” size option. Note that for this event, posters must be submitted to Cook Library for printing by the Friday before the conference to ensure there is time for printing. PowerPoint has convenient templates for posters.
The posters should be on paper that can be rolled up. We will provide poster boards and thumb tacks, so there is no need for tri-fold boards. If your presentation needs more than just a poster board, please email ourci AT_TOWSON as soon as possible.
- The text on the poster should be easily readable. Try to stay practical with standard fonts like Arial and Garamond.
- Ideally, the poster should not overwhelm the reader with text. Try to space out your information in a way that is informative, attractive, and useful.
- Graphics, pictures, and figures should be used whenever possible. Be sure to cite your source including GenAI if used to generate any images.
- In the poster title, please include the following information: name(s) of student author(s), and name(s) of faculty who mentored the project. Please show off your Tiger stripes: Towson University logo and colors are always an excellent addition!