An exciting and rather full day today. After the one lecture today, we had an amazing guest in seminar to speak about sustainable food systems including the race for big data, corporate consolidation, precision agriculture with robotics and new genetic alteration technologies. It was amazing -- lots to think about from the speaker, a world leader in food systems. After a quick lunch, I headed home to cloister with the grading and managed a few papers before the evening event. This was Student Research Day on campus -- with 91 research posters and about 10 oral presentations from mainly undergraduate research, but also some work by graduate students. All 10 of our Honours thesis students presented their posters today. The room was large, full and loud -- but it was a happy loud <smile>. This is the culmination of work that began in the fall or summer for most students. There were adjudicators (for the awards presented at the end of the evening) and many faculty and administrators reading through posters and chatting with students. It is a fun annual event and one that shows the amazing work being done with student research on our campus.
As I visited the posters I was evaluating for those in our department (this is part of their final grade in the thesis course), I noted that this is one time when they will be able to speak to something they are passionate about and people will be asking them about the their projects. The need to take the time to savour that gift was at the core of my message. We all have work we love, yet it isn't often that we have the opportunity to speak about the topic in the way of this poster session. Judging by the smiles on the faces as they spoke to people about their research experiences, it appears they were fully immersed in the joy of such communication.
A song that fit the speakers and places of the day flitted through my grading addled brain. The lyrics present the possibilities of following a dream. Enjoy!
Hall of Fame -- The Script (ft. will.i.am)
No comments:
Post a Comment