The 7th Annual
Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium

Monday, April 21, 2008
Grand Hall of the Rice Memorial Center, Rice University

Visit our  calendar to view upcoming events. 

News and Updates:

April 4, 2008

The registration deadline is this Monday, April 7, at 11:59 PM.  All registrations will take place on the RURS 2008 Owlspace, a joinable site that should be listed on your "Memberships" tab on your Owlspace home page.  One registration per student (unless you're required by classes to enter twice), and for groups, please pick one person and have them register for the group.

March 18, 2008

Important for RURS students - Registration for RURS 2008 will take place via the RURS 2008 Owlspace - it's a joinable site, so please join it ASAP!  We'll be opening the registration forms by the end of this week via the "Tests & Quizzes" tab.  The deadline to register in Monday, April 7, at 11:59 PM.

January 16, 2008

Planning is underway for the 2008 symposium.  The 2008 date has been listed above, but the rest of the website has yet to be updated.

We haven't yet worked out session times, but as soon as those are decided upon, updates will be posted.

As of April 17, 2007

Thanks to everyone for making RURS 2007 a success!

Here is the list of winners.  If you did not win a prize but want to know where you placed in your division, email me (rurs@) in the next few weeks, and I will tell you where you placed but NOT your overall score (those will not be released). 

NATURAL SCIENCES (out of 103 participants)
1st Place - Erol Bakkalbasi
2nd Place - Katherine Horn
3rd Place - Amy Moreno
4th Place and 5th Place (tie) - Reshmi Paul and Paul Thompson

ENGINEERING (out of 48 participants)
1st Place - Drew Bryant
2nd Place - Allen Chen
3rd Place - Jennifer Holm
4th Place - Dania Daye
5th Place - Marina Boleda

SOCIAL SCIENCE (out of 17 participants)
1st Place - Stephen Goggin
2nd Place - Elyse Aurbach

HUMANITIES/ARCHITECTURE (out of 12 participants)
1st Place - Yoo Mi Hong
2nd Place - Callye Dannheim

As of April 12, 2007

RURS is next Monday!  I will be sending one last set of reminder emails out to all judges and participants.  Participants should be arriving to the Grand Hall  BEFORE their session starts to check in with us and set up their posters - we anticipate some long lines at the front of the hall, so be prepared to come a bit early (before 9 AM for the morning session, before 1 PM for the afternoon).  As a reminder, we will have food =).

For those wishing to hear Dr. Neal Lane's keynote speech, it will take place at 11 AM, following some introductory remarks by our committee chair, Jeff Sun.  Also, the prize ceremony will begin at about 3:30 PM, and all undergraduates are encouraged to attend, especially because we've got some really awesome prizes this year. 

Again, please send any questions this website doesn't answer to rurs(at)rice.edu.  I can't answer them on April 16, but if you send them over the weekend, I'll try to respond quickly.

As of April 2, 2007

We had a record number of submissions this year - 180.  Because of this, registration for RURS is CLOSED - there will be no abstract deadline extension.  The afternoon session will definitely put the Grand Hall at maximum capacity, and the morning session will probably come close to that.

Here's the deal with bumps -

If you registered for humanities/architecture or social science, you have been placed in your preferred time slot.

If you registered for engineering in the afternoon, 12 of you have been bumped to the morning session.  I will email those of you affected by bumps within the week, as judging assignments for you have been completed.

If you registered for natural science, as a record number of 100 of you did, you are subject to bumps, particularly if you were among the last 20 or 30 to register for the afternoon session. 

Due to this high number of natural science participants, we are in desperate need of more natural science judges for both the morning (9 - 11 AM) and afternoon (1 - 3 PM) poster sessions.  Please email rurs(at)rice.edu if you are an available faculty member, postdoc, or grad student.

As of April 1, 2007

All RURS participants:  please be aware that there has been a time change.  The morning session will now be held from 9 - 11 AM, and Dr. Neal Lane will be speaking afterwards.  Future emails sent to students and judges will be sure to emphasize this.

The deadline for submitting abstracts is tonight at 11:59 PM.  We have had an overwhelming response with almost 150 abstracts submitted.  Unfortunately, since most of you have indicated your preference for the afternoon session, as well as due to some judging issues that we are actively working to resolve, we will most likely be bumping many of you to the morning session, starting with the people who submitted their abstracts last.  We will email you, probably by the end of this week, with your final session assignment.

As of March 25, 2007,

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Neal Lane, University Professor of Rice, will be our keynote speaker for RURS 2007.

Undergrads, the deadline for abstract submission is next Sunday, April 1, at 11:59 PM.  The sooner you submit your abstract, the better your chance at getting assigned to the poster session (morning or afternoon) that you prefer.