The ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference highlights students from each of the 15 ACC schools presenting their research and creative work. This year’s conference will be held for the first time at Syracuse University. This photo shows team members from 2015.
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) hosts some of the most intense competitions in the realm of college sports. But the brilliant tactics and highly talented students aren’t reserved for just the playing fields.
The ACC is also deeply focused on the hard work and intellectual accomplishments of students in its member institutions’ classrooms, labs and studios.
An annual showcase of some of its most outstanding scholars, the ACC Meeting of the Minds (M.O.M.) Conference highlights students from each of the 15 ACC schools presenting their research and creative work.
This year’s conference—the 11th annual—will be held for the first time at Syracuse University, which joined the ACC in 2013. The University will host the event April 8-10.
Seven SU students have been selected by a University committee to participate in this year’s conference. They were chosen from among the more than 40 finalists, who had applied to take part in the conference. A description of the presenters’ projects, as well as all of the finalists, can be found here.
The students and their projects are the following:
Students from each of the 15 ACC schools—about 90 students in all—will participate in the M.O.M. Conference, which is part of the work of the ACC Academic Consortium that emphasizes strong academics with strong athletics.
“I am pleased to welcome our peer institutions to campus and look forward to seeing the impressive work being done by students across the ACC,” says Associate Provost for Academic Programs Andria Costello Staniec.
Students are making critical connections when they can participate in research, says Dave Brown, coordinator of the ACC Academic Consortium and provost emeritus of Wake Forest University.
“We’ve learned from our world-leading doctoral programs in science and engineering, that involving students in original research is a powerful, effective way to teach and learn,” Brown says. “ACC universities are extending this model to undergraduate students in all disciplines.”
Students will present their research or creative work at the conference through either an oral presentation, a poster presentation, models or exhibition, or a performance. Students will also have the opportunity to interact with faculty and undergraduates from across the ACC and learn more about the host university.
Speakers at the event will also include Professor Shiu-Kai Chin from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Associate Professor Lisa Manning from the College of Arts and Sciences, Associate Professor Jeffrey Mangram from the School of Education and Assistant Professor Breagin Riley from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
“The best and brightest undergraduates are competitively chosen to present their own research at the annual ACC Academic Consortium’s Meeting of the Minds,” Brown says. “For each of these honored students this is an opportunity to enrich their research from insights from others, to practice presentation skills, to network with researchers at other universities, to build their research resumes and to be recognized for their achievements.”
The M.O.M. conference, funded in part by ACC athletic events, combines the resources of all of its partner institutions to benefit all students, not just student-athletes. Most of the expenses for student presenters are paid by the ACC Academic Consortium, with additional assistance from the universities and colleges.
“Athletics has brought our 15 universities together,” Brown says. “It’s wonderful to see these relationships grow for the purpose of enhancing the academic opportunities for all students.”
The M.O.M. Conference also includes plenary sessions that provide reflections on the importance of undergraduate research, highlight research methodologies by distinguished faculty from the host university and reflect on paths to graduate school and research careers.
“The ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference is an opportunity for students to meet people from all over the ACC who are doing work similar to theirs or of interest to them,” Costello Staniec says. “It will be an exciting weekend that we hope will generate even more research and creativity.”
More information on this year’s conference can be found at http://accmom2016.syr.edu.
