“Creativity” came to the fore to make Colorado State University’s annual showcase of undergraduate research a reality this year.

Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are more than 200 posters spotlighting undergraduate research from all eight colleges, with topics ranging from music and mosquitoes to vaccines and beets and everything in between.

The CURC posters can be accessed at col.st/iFoYr.

The 25-plus year tradition is still going strong thanks to some ingenuity from CURC team members Stacy Armbruster, Melissa Edwards, Eliz Hale and Mary Swanson, who used a virtual platform – iPosterSessions – to make the event possible.

“This is a unique year,” said Swanson, who also serves as interim director of student engagement at TILT. “In a typical year, students and faculty would gather together in person. However, we’re still able to showcase great research, and we’re hoping the virtual platform will be a good way for people to connect.”

Virtual attendees can click on a poster, which includes audio narration from the student researcher. They also can contact the researcher to ask questions and provide feedback.

The platform also allows attendees to sort posters by college as well as major and includes a search function.

This year’s event includes 226 poster submissions from 330 students and 270 faculty judges, who began evaluating the posters on April 22 and will finish their work on April 30, with the winners announced in May.

“So far, the response has been positive, and people have been impressed with the platform,” Swanson said. “I encourage the campus community to take a moment to check out the site and experience the outstanding research our students are doing.”