The Week in UR - January 16, 2026

Happy Friday! As we round out this first full week of spring semester classes at TSC, we’re beginning to enter what is the busiest season in the world of undergraduate research (UR, for the uninitiated). It will be a semester filled with activity, and you’ll hear much more about it in the weeks ahead if you keep up with this little newsletter. Here I’ll provide the briefest of roundups of just a few of the upcoming events, opportunities, and deadlines approaching in the coming weeks.

First and foremost, the deadline for students to submit an abstract to present their research at TSC’s Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium is Wednesday, February 18, which, by my count, is just about four weeks away. TSC’s UR Symposium is open to all enrolled TSC students, as well as those who have graduated in the past two years, and we strongly encourage every student who has carried out research at TSC during this time to submit an abstract. Additional information about TSC’s UR symposium, including presentation formats, research project requirements, and resources to help with writing an abstract can be found, as always, on our website: www.tsc.fl.edu/research.

One of the most important requirements for students wishing to participate in TSC’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, or any of the UR Program’s other research opportunities, is for students to secure a faculty mentor to supervise their research. For any student who hasn’t yet found a mentor, the Organization for Student Produced Undergraduate Research (OSPUR), our undergraduate research student organization, will host TSC’s first annual Research Mentoring Fair on January 30, from 2:00 to 4:00, in the Student Union Ballroom. There students will have the opportunity to interact with research mentors, and maybe even secure a mentor that very day. Attendees will also have an opportunity to hear more about the UR Program, OSPUR, and how TSC students can get involved in undergraduate research at TSC. All are welcome to attend!

Finally, one of this year’s most exciting developments in UR at TSC was publication of the very first issue of the TSC Undergraduate Research Journal (TSC URJ 1.1). Few other community colleges, if any, have managed to launch a true peer-reviewed journal of student research before. Needless to say, this represents a significant accomplishment for the College, and most especially for our student authors. To celebrate this historic milestone, the TSC URJ Editorial Board will host a launch party to celebrate publication of TSC URJ 1.1, to be held Thursday, February 5, from 3:00-4:00, in the TSC Library, room 265. As with all of our events, all are welcome to attend, and we very much encourage all student researchers, research mentors, and sundry friends of the UR Program to help us celebrate the accomplishments of our student authors. Below is a smart-looking graphic that should help in spreading the word, if you're so inclined. (Thanks to Dr. Donya Samara for doing the design!)

That’s it for this week. The Week in UR will be back, in the next week or two, with another summation of all things UR at TSC. Until then, I wish you all a delightful wintry weekend, with hopes all around that we might see a blanket of snow atop Florida’s capital city for a second year running. Could it be? Almost certainly not. And yet…the old digital mercury did hit 25 on my way in this morning. So one can dream.