Meeting of Minds Conference on May 12 at Oakland University

Oakland University to Host Meeting of Minds Conference on May 12

The Meeting of Minds Undergraduate Research Conference, which invites students from Oakland University (OU), the University of Michigan-Flint and the University of Michigan-Dearborn to present the results of their scholarly and creative endeavors through oral or poster presentations, will take place on Friday, May 12 on OU’s campus.

“This conference is an opportunity to learn about things you never knew about, or to learn more about something you knew a little about,” said Robby Stewart, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Now in its 25th year, the Meeting of Minds (MOM) conference began as a venture of cooperation between UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint in 1993. Oakland University was invited to join the group in 1995.

“In 2016, the coordinators representing the three institutions agreed that we would invite students, faculty and administrators from the community colleges associated with each of our campuses to attend the conference,” Stewart said. “This led to invitations being extended to Henry Ford Community College, Oakland Community College, Macomb Community College and Mott Community College.”

According to Stewart, the conference is held on the campus of one of the participating universities each year. This year, Oakland University will host 133 oral and poster presentations in the Oakland Center and in South Foundation Hall.

“I like the fact that so many disciplines are presented by MOM,” Stewart said. “I can learn something from students in microbiology, chemistry or biomedical science, and then talk with students of art history, French literature or psychology. You can spend three minutes at a poster or 30 minutes, depending on how interested you are in the topic and how engaging the conversation might be. If you are a knowledge nerd like me, MOM is a great day.”

The conference will begin with registration and a continental breakfast between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. A number of concurrently running events, including a poster session, and a number of oral presentation sessions taking place in South Foundation Hall, will follow this.

“At each MOM conference the hosting institution will select an alumni speaker who is given the opportunity to tell the group about their professional journey since the time when they presented at the conference years ago,” Stewart said. “Given this is the 25th anniversary of MOM, we are asking alums who were presenters at previous sessions to consider May 12 a sort of ‘homecoming’ to re-visit MOM.”

Afternoon sessions will continue between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. with a second set of poster and oral presentations.

“Attendees will receive a program at registration and will have time to plan which sessions they want to hear,” Stewart said. “Some people attend only oral sessions and some attend only posters. Others move back and forth between the two.”

Meeting of Minds Conference Schedule and Details:  www.oakland.edu/cas/meeting-of-minds.