IDS4200 Interdisciplinary Senior Seminar

The Research & Creative Achievement Conference (RCAC) is Merrimack's undergraduate research conference. It provides an opportunity for students to showcase their academic work and creative talents, and to get experience with a type of scholarly and professional communication you may use throughout your career.

Academic presentations consist of poster presentations. You will need to create a poster using the RCAC template and be able to expand upon your ideas and answer questions for anyone who comes to view your poster.

Need inspiration? See work from past RCAC events.

Include on your poster:

• Your name and the title of your capstone project.
• Your project's abstract.
• Your thesis or research question.
• Major takeaways. This may take the same format as your capstone paper (i.e. sections for methodology, results, and discussion/conclusion).
• Graphics, charts and tables, and photographs, if relevant.

Guidelines for your presentation:

• When someone comes up to see your poster, greet them and introduce yourself. Ask if they would like to hear more about your project.
• Give context. Tell people what program or major you are in and about the purpose of your capstone project.
• Have a short presentation of around 5 minutes prepared. Focus on your thesis or research question, main takeaways of your project, and some specific examples or findings you find most important and interesting.
• Practice by yourself or with a friend or classmate.
• Be prepared for questions. Practicing with a friend or classmate can help with this -- they may have questions for you.
• If someone asks you a question you don't have an answer for, don't panic. Be honest. You can say, "That's outside the scope of my project, but..." Try to steer the conversation back to what you have learned. Or, if you know the person is an expert in your area of study, you can say, "That's a great question, but I'm not sure. What is your take on the issue?"