Undergraduate Engineering Research Day (UnERD)

UnERD 2024 is set to take place on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This is a full-day event in which undergraduate engineering students get to present their research to a broad audience of fellow students, faculty and industry professionals.

The deadline to register for UnERD 2024 is Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). You must register to present at UnERD. Please note that we do not send out email confirmations upon registration. However, we will send emails over the last week of July to confirm the participants’ presentation format.

The abstract submission deadline for UnERD 2024 is Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). Submission details will be shared later. You must submit an abstract to present at UnERD.

If you are a faculty member, an alumni, or an industry member, we would love to have you involved in UnERD 2024 as a judge or graduate panellist! Please email unerd@engineering.utoronto.ca to express your interest in getting involved.

If you are an undergraduate researcher wishing to present, you must complete the registration form, submit an abstract and fulfill the presenter eligibility requirements (see following question) to participate.

If you are interested only in attending UnERD 2024, feel free to come to Myhal on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, no registration required! There may also be free food (not guaranteed)!

UnERD is open to the public! We welcome all students, professors, and researchers to attend by visiting the Myhal Centre on August 21, 2024 (food is not guaranteed for non-presenters).

To participate, you must either:

1. Be conducting research under the supervision of a U of T Engineering faculty member and/or be funded by the faculty.

OR

2. Be a U of T Engineering undergraduate student conducting research (can be independent or associated with a different institution).

For exceptional circumstances regarding eligibility, please email unerd@engineering.utoronto.ca.

Yes. However, there is a maximum of two presenters per project. This applies to both poster and podium presentations. Both presenters must register, however only one abstract should be submitted.

Although we cannot guarantee space for two presentations, you can certainly submit two abstracts and we will accommodate based on availability.

Each research project (podium or poster) will consist of a 10-minute presentation followed by a 5-minute Q&A session.

Presentation format (podium or poster) will be assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis depending on your selection when you register. We will confirm each participant’s presentation format by the end of July.

There is no difference in judging based on the presentation format. The rubric we provide the judges accounts for these differences. Additionally, we have processes to ensure unbiased results for all participants. Similarly, each research category (as well as best overall) will have its own poster and podium winner. We recommend choosing the format that would represent your research well, and that you feel most comfortable presenting in.

We will choose presenters for UnERD 2024 based on the abstracts submitted. The selection process is focused on providing feedback and suggestions for improvement rather than rejecting students. However, the UnERD committee will reject any abstract we deem as unqualified (e.g., incomplete abstract).

After abstract submission, the UnERD committee will provide qualitative feedback on the submitted abstract based on the rubric that will be published. Participants may request a copy of their graded rubric by emailing unerd@engineering.utoronto.ca.

Award categories have yet to be finalized. However, the tentative list is as follows:

• Best researcher overall
• Best abstract overall
• Best poster & best podium overall
• Best poster & best podium for each category:
  • Aerospace, Advanced Manufacturing & Mechatronics
  • Bioengineering
  • Data Analytics & AI
  • Electrical Computer Systems
  • Environment & Material
  • Human Health
  • Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (TEP)