AUC Research Week: 'An Interdisciplinary Celebration of Research'

AUC’s first Research Week will commence this Saturday, marking the first year that nine different research-related events are consolidated into one annual event. The week will feature 240 presentations by students and faculty members.

 “This will be an interdisciplinary and institution-wide celebration of research aimed at strengthening the culture of research on campus,” shared Amani Elshimi, director of undergraduate research and member of the organizing committee for AUC Research Week.

April 1-2
Problem-Based Learning Institute

The week will kick off with the Problem-Based Learning Institute, a two-day workshop organised by the Center for Learning and Teaching in collaboration with the University of Delaware. The workshop will cover teaching practices that focus on student collaboration, inquiry and problem-solving in approaching real-world challenges. This event limited to pre-registered faculty participants.

April 2
Competitions

In 2016, AUC celebrated Research Day, with the Faculty Research Pitch Competition and the Student Research Poster Competition. These two competitions will continue to be awarded at AUC Research Week this year.

For the Faculty Research Pitch Competition, faculty members from all disciplines will present a two-minute pitch and an optional single static PowerPoint slide of a new product, research idea or invention to a panel of judges. For the Student Research Pitch Competition, undergraduate and graduate students will present their research using posters. 

“This week represents an opportunity for AUC to position itself as a University that focuses on both production and dissemination of knowledge, rather than just knowledge-consumption,” said Elshimi.

April 2, 4-6

EURECA Conference

EURECA, the annual conference for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, Entrepreneurship and Creative Achievement, will witness its 12th year at AUC, giving undergraduate students a chance to display their best discipline-based research work.

April 3
Creatopia: Creativity, Innovation Entrepreneurship Exhibition

An event, titled Creatopia, will run throughout the day on April 3, showcasing faculty and student creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Among the activities taking place this day will be a literary salon, film screenings, science demonstrations, music performances, art exhibitions and an entrepreneurship exposition.

April 4
Academy of Liberal Arts Symposium

The third Academy of Liberal Arts Symposium will host a series of panel discussions concentrating on liberal arts and language instruction.  At the symposium, faculty members from the Academy of Liberal Arts will showcase AUC’s focus on the liberal arts and language instruction, in addition to the academy’s research, creative work, integrative learning practices, community engagement, pedagogy, and cross-disciplinary collaborative partnerships.

The Common Reading Program is also holding a competition for students giving five minute Lightning Talks on complex issues they contemplated in their critical reading.

April 4
ELI  Explorers Panel

Even students participating in pre-credit courses will have the opportunity to present their work at the ELI Explorers Panel on April 4. 

April 5-6
AUC Research Conference

In its 23rd year, the AUC Research Conference will take place beginning Wednesday, April 5. Titled Communities Conceptualized: A Conference on the Definitions, Perspectives and Approaches to Community, the conference invites graduate students and faculty members to submit research revolving around the theme of “community,” with the goal of underlining interdisciplinary efforts at using research to tackle challenges in the community.

Conference themes include defining community; community institutions such as businesses, schools, universities, mosques, churches, recreational facilities, public spaces; community engagement; intellectual communities; community-focused research; the community as a classroom; learning cultures; science and the community; and new emerging communities in Egypt and the region.

The keynote speaker at the conference will be Laila Iskander, former minister of state for urban renewal and informal settlements, former minister of state for environmental affairs, founder and chairperson of CID Consulting, who will deliver a lecture titled “From Trickle Down to Bottom Up, To Base of the Pyramid and Corporate Social Responsibility: Where Do Communities Figure?”

April 5
First-Year Experience Panels

This year’s AUC Research Week will also feature First-Year Research Experience panels, which will offer a space for freshman students to join in on the week’s festivities by presenting research-based projects completed in any 1000-level course.

April 6
Keynote Speaker

Each event will highlight its own keynote speaker or set of panelists, but the weeklong celebration will come to an end with a special closing speech and awards ceremony on April 6, featuring keynote speaker, Ruha Benjamin, assistant professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and author of People’s Science: Bodies and Rights on the Stem Cell Frontier.

A Celebration of Research

Highlighting AUC Research Week as a campus-wide event, Elshimi noted that the activities are meant to engage all members of the AUC community, “from the student taking his or her first steps on campus to senior faculty.”

Tracing AUC’s rich history of research and celebrating the community’s innovative work, this week is aimed at celebrating faculty, graduate and undergraduate research as well creative achievements in all fields at AUC.  “By emphasizing the importance of research on campus, we can redefine how we see ourselves as an academic community,” affirmed Elshimi. ““Students should begin to see themselves not asrecipeints of knowledge , but discerning scholars. Their professors are researchers, mentors and colleagues.”

 “This will be a rich and festive event,” added Elshimi. She noted that the week will “call forward different groups and segments of the AUC community in celebration of research.” The event allows for faculty members  and student across all disciplines to come together in a celebratory and community-focused atmosphere. It was Interim Provost Ehab Abdel Rahman who was central to bringing these events together with other longstanding AUC research activities to organize the first AUC Research Week on campus.”