SPARC: Student Psychology Annual Research Conference
SPARC is a research conference, held each spring, designed to facilitate personal and professional enrichment as both undergraduate and graduate students share their papers and projects.
Our conference is a wonderful way for students to present and get feedback in a supportive and collaborative environment. SPARC makes a great addition to your resume, and truly one of the UWG Psychology's most celebratory and communal events of the school year!
Submission Guidelines
- Submissions are due each spring semester. Look for the deadline to be posted closer to time.
- SPARC presentations are generally 15-20 minutes. They span many different interests and pursuits. We encourage all of these interests and have been able to share many new and intriguing research ideas through our entire department. This can vary from a research project, thesis, dissertation, upcoming publication, term paper, newfound interest in psychological phenomena, psychological exploration of a topic and more!
- SPARC presentations require a faculty sponsorship. In order to get a faculty sponsorship you need to have express permission from a member of the psychology faculty to present on your topic of interest. Your professor may ask more questions to understand your project in further detail, give more insights for you to pursue or even ask to see your progress. This is a great time to get to work closer with your professors and let them know more about you!
- Once the form is submitted, our submissions committee will reach out to your faculty sponsor and then you should receive a response briefly afterward of approval of your submission. If there are any issues with your submission or we need further information you will be contacted so that we can have the information submitted correctly.
- In rare circumstances we do reject submissions. This is mostly due to not receiving faculty sponsorship previous to submitting. Most of the time we will ask for more information about a presentation before we have to proceed with rejection.
- We look forward to seeing your submissions and sharing ideas with one another!
Frequently Asked Questions and Additional Information
Simply fill out the form located on the submissions page. You can submit proposals for a 15 minute pre-recorded video, a powerpoint presentation (20-30 slides max), or a paper (10 pages max).
Yes you can. You can submit up to two proposals including group presentations.
Yes! We encourage students to work together with others to share new ideas and their collective research!
We ask that presentations are no longer than 15 minutes if prerecorded. We also have opened up opportunities to present written reports, or PowerPoints at SPARC. We prefer that written reports can still be read in about the same time that it would take to present. (Roughly 10 pages or under for a written paper/ 20-30 Slides for a PowerPoint). SPARC is a chance to show an abbreviated and succinct presentation of your work so we ask that you remain at or below those guidelines for non-recorded formats.
You will not miss psychology classes. All afternoon classes in psychology will be canceled for the conference.
This conference is an excellent opportunity for our graduate students. Not only is SPARC a wonderful opportunity for students to share their work (completed or still in progress) with others in the psychology, but it is also a professional presentation that can be listed on a vita/resume.
SPARC is a wonderful opportunity for undergraduate students to share their work (completed or still in progress) with others in the psychology, and it enhance a resume when it comes to internships, practicum, or graduate school.