Butler Undergraduate Research Convention Apr 18, 2009 |
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Yesterday, a co-researcher, a professor and myself(sounds like the start of a bad joke.) went to the Butler Undergraduate Research Convention (URC). One of the things I realized is that it can be quite difficult to present the same poster over and over again. At the beginning of the session, I found myself uninterested in the things I was saying to people. Eight months ago I had been so proud of my work but after already presenting the same poster at the CCSC MW Conference and the Ball State Student Symposium, the third feels blasé.
I had a great experience about half-way through the session which really turned things around for me. Two woman stopped by our poster and after a brief introduction to the material, they were very impressed. They immediately claimed to see the benefit of usability focused software development. It made me remember why i enjoyed the work in the first place.
Looking back I think the women (or at lease one of them) were there simply to show an interest and make us feel good about ourselves. And it worked. I realize the point of these little conventions, especially these unjudged events, is to simply give us newbies some confidence and introduce us to the research community. Honestly, it is of great benefit. I think it could be of great benefit to give a talk sometime in the near future. Organized public speaking, as opposed to a classroom or off the cuff study session, is somewhat of a plague for me. As soon as I plan out my thoughts and create an outline, I just end up falling all over my words. I much prefer to have a general idea and make up the rest. It feels more honest anyhow. |
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