Washington D.C. was bustling with researchers from all fields Nov. 14-17 as part of the annual International Forum of Research Excellence (IFoRE), hosted by the international research honor society Sigma Xi. Previously held in Los Angeles, Heritage attended the conference once again and came out victorious in both the poster and oral presentation categories.
On the first day, students were able to tour the Washington area, including the National Mall. Following their exploration and a quick visit to the ice rink, students made their way to opening ceremonies to commence the convention. The following day, competitions began.
With 13 students competing, students were split across the poster and the oral category. Additionally, students were then split into two time slots: those competing on Friday and those competing on Saturday. Oral presentations entailed students creating a six to eight minute slideshow presentation to present to a panel of two judges, followed by questioning for two minutes. With over 60 oral presenters, and only one oral presenter across all categories being awarded Top High School Presenter, competition was tough.
On the other hand, 70+ students presented their posters in the poster category. Here, students used their poster as a visual aid to assist them in their presentation and were able to speak for up to ten minutes with judges about their project. For posters, there was no main Top Presenter award given; instead, awards were given based on which category each student’s work fell into and on education level (high school, undergraduate, graduate).
Interdisciplinary awards were also given to both oral and poster presenters. These awards are given to the top presenters whose work falls into a more general and widely applicable research discipline. As awardees are the best in their field, educational level is not considered when awarding these prizes, so winners could be a high school, undergraduate or even graduate-level student.
In addition to competitions, students were able to enjoy presentations from distinguished research professors. These included presentations from Cato T. Laurencin, Sigma Xi’s 2024 Gold Key Award recipient and Peter J. Hotez, one of Time’s Top 100 Influential People in Health.
The conference ended with an awards banquet, where students were recognized for their outstanding work and presentation with a medal and $200. The awardees from the Heritage Research Team are listed below:
Oral:
Senior Emma Colarte Delgado – Interdisciplinary winner in Human Sciences and Policy
Senior Calvin Mathew – Interdisciplinary winner in Design, Construction and Manufacturing
Poster:
Junior Noah Duro-Andre – Poster winner in the Agriculture, Soil and Natural Resources category
Senior Iris Fan – Poster winner in the Chemistry category
Heritage winners from both the Plantation and Boca campus come together to celebrate their accomplishments. One-third of the research cohort that competed in IFoRE, for both the Plantation and Boca campus, came home with awards. (Photos/Emma Colarte Delgado and Dr. Anita Shaw)
Juniors Mikaella Mishiev and Shriya Narasimhan competed in poster and oral, respectively. “It was a great experience to present my project and get in the hang of competing so I can start this season on a good foot,” Mishiev said. (Photos/Emma Colarte Delgado)
The whole research cohort, accompanied by mentors Dr. Juliana Caulkins and Dr. Anita Shaw, visited the Lincoln Memorial and White House together. (Photos/Dr. Juliana Caulkins and Emma Colarte Delgado)
Students had the chance to visit the Georgetown area, with plenty of shopping and food options in the college-area of D.C. Glossier, Brandy Melville and cat cafes were all common finds here. (Photos/Emma Colarte Delgado)
