Program Schedule

The BigSURS proceedings begin in the early afternoon on Friday, April 13, 2012 and conclude on Saturday, April 14, by mid-afternoon.

Download BigSURS Tentative Schedule of Events.

Keynote Speaker - Dr. Tiffany Barnes

Friday, April 13th - Richardson Ballroom

Dr. Tiffany Barnes is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at UNC Charlotte, who specializes in educational data mining and using games to improve learning. Dr. Barnes is a Co-Principal Investigator and Evaluation Coordinator of the NSF-funded STARS Alliance that broadens participation in computing by engaging college students in outreach, research, and service. She is the Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Culturally Situated Design Tools project that engages students in researching, developing, and disseminating cultural tools that teach computing. She is also the Principal Investigator of the NSF-funded Game2Learn project that engages students in developing and researching serious games. Dr. Barnes received an NSF CAREER Award for her novel work in using data to add intelligence to STEM learning environments. She is a member of the ACM Special Interest Group – Computer Science Education Board, and is on organizing committees for Foundations of Digital Games and Educational Data Mining conferences. Dr. Barnes is a UNCC REU Site Co-Principal Investigator and has supervised 50 undergraduate research projects, and 20 of these students have gone on to graduate school. She is working with the Carnegie Learning on an Educause Next Generation Learning Challenge grant to develop game frameworks to build math fluency in adults. As one of the five initial AP CS Principles pilot instructors she now works to train new teachers through her NSF-funded collaborative CE21 Beauty and Joy of Computing project with Berkeley.

Intercollegiate Exhibition Juror

Exhibition reception and awards are Friday, April 13th at 6:30 pm; critique is Saturday, April 14th at 11:00 am. Both are in the Lewandowski Student Gallery, in McLaurin Hall.

Dr. Virginia Derryberry is a Professor and Chair of the Art Department at UNC Asheville. Dr. Derryberry’s work has been shown in venues such as the Carnegie Museum of Art, the London Institute of Art, and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. Her work is included in the collections of Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Ga., and Nashville International Airport. Dr. Derryberry has also received numerous grants and fellowships, including a residency fellowship from Moulin à Nef, in Auvillar, France, in 2004, as well as an artist fellowship from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA).

Faculty Mentor Panel

Friday, April 13th at 8pm – DiGiorgio Campus Center, room 114

In addition to Dr. Barnes and Dr. Derryberry the panel will include:

Dr. Merle Schuh, Professor of Chemistry (emeritus) was the James G. Martin Professor of Chemistry and served eight years as department chair at Davidson College. He has extensive teaching experience and is the recipient of numerous awards for teaching and mentoring undergraduates in research.  He has served for twelve years as an elected councilor of the Council on Undergraduate Research and is the founder and organizer of an annual CUR institute "Beginning a Research Program in the Natural Sciences at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution".

Dr. Mary Crowe is the Director of Undergraduate Research at UNC Greensboro who has served numerous years on the Council on Undergraduate Research and the Board for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.  Dr. Crow is the President Elect for the Council on Undergraduate Research.  Over the course of her career she has mentored over 30 undergraduate researchers studying the behavior of crabs and insects.  She is also interested in assesssing what students gain as a result of their involvement in undergraduate research experiences.