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A conference for physics students, organized by physics students.

On Saturday, October 4, about 120 undergraduates from universities across Colorado and Wyoming put their research on display at the in Boulder.

The one-day conference featured short talks by undergraduate researchers in parallel sessions and an afternoon poster session. Three distinguished faculty gave plenary talks including University of Denver Professor Mark Siemens (PhDPhys’09), and CU Boulder Professors Ed Kinney and Margaret Murnane.

25 students gave talks in parallel sessions grouped by research area, and 31 students presented posters during the afternoon poster session.

“The Colorado Undergrad Physics Conference was a wonderful opportunity for the many outstanding undergraduate researchers in our state to present their work and interact with each other,” said Keith Ulmer, associate professor of physics and faculty advisor to CU Boulder’s Society of Physics Students chapter. “The quality of the presentations was exceptional.”��

Organized entirely by student leaders from CU Boulder groups SPS and CU-Prime, and supported by the Department of Physics and Quantum Scholars, the conference gave students the chance to present their research and practice scientific communication skills. The best speaker and best poster award recipients were selected by faculty and graduate student volunteers.

Motivated by the energy he drew from attending his first conference a year prior, co-organizer and physics undergraduate student Ben Braun was driven to provide that same opportunity to fellow undergraduates. That experience made Braun realize the impact such conferences can have on individuals. “Opportunities like this are incredibly important as they help develop the scientists of tomorrow through scientific communication and networking.”

Luke Adams, co-organizer and physics graduate student, said he was inspired to help organize this conference because his undergrad institution held a similar event. “I found it very impactful to see what ‘real’ research looked like early in my education,” said Adams.

Ulmer praised the conference’s leadership team for their outstanding work putting the conference together. “They saw a real need for a conference like this focused on undergraduate research topics and filled it in a spectacularly successful way,” he said. “The ambition to take on such a large organizational effort is impressive and the results more than justified all of the effort that went into organizing the event."

One of the primary goals of the conference was to eliminate standard barriers for undergraduate attendance, making it more approachable and accessible. “Amazingly we were able to host this conference with no registration fees for attendees,” said Braun. “We are incredibly grateful for the organizational, financial and logistical support provided by the Department of Physics, and we look forward to collaborating on��opportunities��like this again in the future.”

The organizing team hopes this conference will continue on an annual basis, and they already have plans to host it again at CU Boulder next year.��