CSUNposium
The CSUNposium, also known as the Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium, is a student conference featuring oral and poster presentations. The purpose is to showcase excellence in scholarly research and creative activity conducted by CSUN students across all academic disciplines.
Historically, the CSUNposium oral sessions have been organized by department and/or college. Given the success of previous CSUNposium interdisciplinary themed sessions, we are excited to continue with organizing selected sessions around a theme rather than by discipline. The theme will not be set prior to the abstract submission but rather, submitted abstracts will be reviewed and grouped into themes by the CSUNposium committee members (if applicable). Therefore, since some sessions will be interdisciplinary, it is important participants ensure their presentation is understandable by judges in different disciplines.
2025 CSUNposium
The 2025 CSUNposium will be held at the University Student Union. More information about the event can be found in the tabs below.
Instructions
Students that select this presentation format must present their research or creative works within three (3) minutes in a language appropriate to a group of judges outside of their academic discipline.
Students will be judged by the following criteria:
- Delivery
- Content
- Organization
- Enthusiasm
- Audience understanding
A few things you should know:
- Students will be allotted a 6-minute time slot; this includes 3 minutes for the presentation, 2 minutes for questions and answers, and 1 minute for transition.
- If you are using prerecorded audio and visual materials, they should be embedded in your presentation.
- All oral presentations will be hosted in person in the University Student Union.
Instructions
Students that select this presentation format will have ten (10) minutes for their presentation and five (5) minutes to respond to questions from the judges. Judges will be selected from either within the student’s academic discipline, area of study, or college; some sessions may be interdisciplinary. Please note one or more of the judges may not be from the student’s discipline. Therefore, talks should be prepared for a general college-educated audience.
Students will be judged by the following criteria:
- Clarity of study/creative work purpose
- Significance/value of the research or creative activity
- Appropriateness of methodology or creative project design
- Analysis of project or Interpretation of results, or predicted results/outcome and possible interpretations
- Organization of the material presented
- Presenters ability to answer questions from judges/audience
A few things you should know:
- Students will be allotted a 15-minute time slot; this includes 10 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for questions and answers.
- Presenters may use audio-visual materials as appropriate.
- Presenters may use an audio-visual recording of a performance if appropriate
- All oral presentations will be hosted in person in the University Student Union.
Instructions
Poster presenter(s) must be available to discuss your poster with the faculty judges during your poster presentation session. Please see the schedule below.
Morning Poster Presentation Session: 9:30am to 11:30am
Set up: 9:30am
Poster Presentation: 10:00am to 11:30am
Breakdown: 11:30am
Afternoon Poster Presentation Session: 12:30pm to 2:30pm
Set up: 12:30pm
Poster Presentation: 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Breakdown: 2:30pm
Students will be judged by the following criteria:
- Question of interest
- Background information
- Stated objective and/or hypothesis
- Appropriateness of methodology or creative project design
- Clarity of analysis and/or results; predicted results outcomes and possible interpretations
- Stated summary and/or conclusion (if applicable)
- Contribution of the research or creative activity to the field
- Organization of the material presented
- Ability to answer questions from judges/audience
- Legibility of poster
Note: Judges will be selected from either within the student’s academic discipline, area of study, or college; some sessions may be interdisciplinary. Please note one or more of the judges may not be from the student’s discipline. Therefore, posters should be prepared for a general college-educated audience.
A few things to note before you create your poster:
- The poster should be 3 feet tall by 4 feet long
- Do not use foam boards
- Pushpins will be available on site to attach the poster to the poster board
- The poster should include the following items: title, name of author(s), department, and a description of the research/creative work. The narrative should highlight the major elements covered in the abstract of the work performed
- Illustrations should be readable from a distance of three feet or more
- Use lettering that is 1⁄4” to 1⁄2” high. Heavier typefaces are easier to see at a distance
- Graphs, charts and tables help to make the presentations more interesting
Poster Printing:
- Posters must be of professional quality
- Use a poster printer to print your poster
- Please contact your department to see if they are able to print your poster
*Unfortunately, we are unable to print posters this year. If you need assistance printing your posters, please be sure to contact your department office or college to see if they have any available funding.*
Who May Apply
Undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at CSUN.
How to Apply
A complete application includes an online submission and your faculty advisor's approval. Once you submit your application, your faculty advisor will receive an email notification of your 2025 CSUNposium application. Your advisor must electronically approve your application and this will serve as your faculty approval. Only complete applications will be considered.
Each student may submit only one application. If a student submits more than one abstract/application, only one will be accepted for presentation. However, students are welcome to be listed as a co-applicant on more than one submission but may only submit one application as the primary author.
SPECIAL NOTE: Your student application must be submitted by Friday, January 31, 2025 by 12:00 PM and your faculty advisor's approval must be completed by Monday, February 3, 2025 by 5:00 PM. Late submissions will not be accepted. The application will open on December 2nd.
An abstract is a brief summary of the research/project/creative work. It is a well-developed, concise paragraph and reflects the main points of the research/project/creative work. Abstracts cannot exceed 1000 characters (approximately 150 words) and should not include any charts, tables, or figures.
All submissions will go through a review process, overseen by the CSUNposium committee members. Ideally, all submissions will be invited to participate in the symposium. If the number of submissions exceeds maximum capacity, a selection process will take place. Primary authors will be notified in late February 2025 if their abstract has been accepted for presentation. Based on preference and availability, accepted abstracts will be assigned to one of the following: 3-minute oral presentation, 10-minute oral presentation, or poster presentation.
To assist students in preparing for the CSUNposium, the Office of Graduate Studies has created a video workshop series to help prepare students for the event. We encourage students to take advantage of all the recorded workshops. The link to view the recordings will be available in January 2025.
A committee consisting of faculty members and/or CSUN alumni will judge the presentations. Based on the judges recommendations, awards will be presented to the outstanding oral and poster presenters of each session. Please note that only submissions with completed data will be eligible for monetary prizes.
Judges Interest Form
Please click HERE to complete the Judge's Interest Form. Faculty will be notified that they are a judge in early March 2025.
Information Session
Date: TBD
Time: TBD
Location: Via Zoom
The information session will be recorded and sent to all of the judges
2023 Information
2024
- To access the Winner's list, At-A-Glance schedule and this year's Program, please select 2024 CSUNposium
If you would like to request a copy of past programs or Winner's list, please email Wendy Brown.