CSUNposium

To access the Winner's list, At-A-Glance schedule and this year's Program, please select 2024 CSUNposium.

Please send an email to Wendy Brown for more information.

Please select 2025 CSUNposium to view next year's Information Video.

To learn about the event, please view What is the CSUNposium video.

The 2025 CSUNposium will be held in person at the University Student Union. More information about the event can be found below.

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.

Undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at CSUN.

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.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

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.

An abstract is a brief summary of your research/project/creative work. It is a well-developed, concise paragraph and reflects the main points of your research/project/creative work. Abstracts can not exceed 1000 characters (approximately 150 words) and should not include any charts, tables, or figures.

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.

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; please note some sessions may be interdisciplinary. If a student is placed in an interdisciplinary session, one or more of the judges will not be from their 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; 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 audiovisual 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.

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: 9:30 – 11:30 AM
Set up: 9:30 AM
Poster Presentation: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Breakdown: 11:30 AM

Afternoon Poster Presentation Session: 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Set up: 12:30 PM
Poster Presentation: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Breakdown: 2:30 PM

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; please note some sessions may be interdisciplinary. If a student is placed in an interdisciplinary session, one or more of the judges will not be from their discipline. Therefore, talks should be prepared for a general college-educated audience.

A few things to note before you create your poster:

• Your poster should be 3 feet tall by 4 feet long
• Do not use foam boards
• Pushpins will be available on site to attach your poster to the poster board
• Your 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 your work
• 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

To assist you in preparing for the CSUNposium, the Office of Graduate Studies has created a video workshop series to help you prepare for the event. We encourage you to take advantage of all the recorded workshops. The link to view the recordings will be available in January 2025.

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

The CSUNposium award ceremony will take place after the event. For those that are not able or do not want to attend in person, the award ceremony will also be broadcast virtually.

A committee consisting of faculty members and/or CSUN alumni will judge the presentations. Based on recommendations of the Judges, cash awards will be presented to the outstanding oral and poster presenters. Submissions with completed data will be eligible for monetary prizes. Submissions in the proposal or preliminary stages will be judged by faculty and upon request, feedback will be given after the event, however they are not eligible for monetary prizes.

At-A-Glance Schedule.pdf

2023 Program.pdf

2023 Winner's List

If you would like to request a copy of past programs or Winner's list, please email Wendy Brown.