Jordan Gerard/ Winonan

Undergraduate students within the Minnesota and State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) schools will have the rare opportunity to present their research projects at the Minnesota Undergraduate Scholars Conference on April 13 at Winona State.

Computer science professor Mingrui Zhang said it is a good opportunity to encourage the students to participate in research with professors and present it.

“Doing research and conducting research is a very important learning process,” Zhang said. “It lets students learn independently.”

Zhang mentioned that Winona State has mostly undergraduate students who often do not get a chance to present their work at conferences.

“Most conferences are for graduate students and beyond. There are very few conferences for undergrad students,” Zhang said. “It exposes them to research and how to present their work and research.”

In addition to Winona State’s own students, more students from the MnSCU network will attend the conference. In recent years, the conference has been hosted at Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn. and University of Minnesota-Moorhead.

A council chooses hosting schools with representatives from each school, and each year, universities take a turn to host the conference. Last summer, Winona State volunteered to host it.

“It will raise collaboration with other state universities, faculties and students,” Zhang said. “It’s good for the university.”

Students who sent in project abstracts to the council for admittance into the conference had their choice of an oral or poster presentation.

There will be two sessions for oral and poster. The first oral session starts at 9 a.m., followed by the first poster session. The second oral session starts at 1 p.m. followed by another poster session.

Zhang said the most common majors involved with projects were sciences like chemistry and biology, but the event is open to all majors.

He also said he believes this conference allows for undergraduates to see the real impact of their projects.

“It gives students a way to collaborate, share information and showcase their projects to show case to other state universities,” Zhang said. “It brings more attention to research projects on campus.”