Information for Faculty

“Students had a great time presenting, and guest judges enjoyed interacting with students. Several students got internship offers as a result and others will receive departmental awards for their achievement.”  

“Seeing students outside the classroom, putting their professional selves and facing the public audience, was very rewarding.”  

“The panel with my students was fantastic.”  

“Seeing the students present their research in such sophisticated, confident, thoughtful ways was so rewarding.”

“For undergraduate and graduate students, Showcase is a time to show off all the hard work that they’ve put in during the year. For faculty, it is a moment to be proud of the tremendous progress that students have made.”  

“I loved working with my students on the project, and they really enjoyed it as well. It was also wonderful to see some of my students presenting work from other courses. I think it truly fosters a strong sense of community on campus."

"I love getting to learn about student research from across the University, so I was happy to spend considerable time in the poster halls at the Lecture Center.”

"It was neat to see students so engaged in their projects and with each other's projects. This is a great event and opportunity for students to showcase what they have been working hard on.”

“I think this is a great opportunity for students and made them highly motivated in my courses.”

“Seeing the student presentations highlights just how fantastic our student body really is.”

My favorite part of Showcase was...

• “Seeing students rise to the occasion.“
• “Watching my students deliver papers that were reflective of the dedication to what they found most interesting in the work they were doing. It was so good to see them up there with confidence in themselves. That is everything to me.”
• “Watching sophomores getting excited about the breadth of research being performed in UAlbany.”
• “Talking to parents about their child's poster/presentation.”
• “Visiting my students' posters.”
• “Seeing the students present their work with confidence and pride. The event is a great opportunity for them to realize their voices matter.”
• “When the University President took time to talk to my students about their CEHC research topics.”
• “Seeing the diversity of research being done by students outside my department.”
• “Seeing the smiles of pride in my students’ accomplishments when viewed by friends, family and faculty.”
• “Talking to students and seeing my undergraduate students reading the posters of our graduate students.” 

We were all impressed by students' hard work on papers, projects and presentations in Fall 2025. Their intellectual growth is a tangible result of your teaching and guidance.

Here are a few ways you can encourage students from your Fall 2025 courses to participate in Showcase 2026:

• If a student’s work during the Fall 2025 semester particularly stood out to you, encourage them to present it at Showcase 2026.
• Let students know you’re willing to serve as their Showcase Advisor, guiding them through the submission and presentation process in Spring 2026.
• Provide students with comments and other feedback to improve their papers, projects and presentations ahead of Showcase.

Note: Detailed instructions for Showcase Advisors and student presenters will be available online soon.

Student presenters will benefit from the experience of presenting their research, adding to their resumes and demonstrating their achievements.

Graduate students in particular are encouraged to present their work on Showcase Day as a way to gain professional conference experience.

Presenters will be asked to provide a title and abstract that will be included in the Showcase Day program. They also will have the cost of printing their research poster covered by the event, if applicable.

Note: Detailed instructions for Showcase Advisors and student presenters will be available online soon.

Students working on projects as part of a class, lab group, research team or in a department-sponsored event are welcome to present at Showcase Day. Work should be sufficiently developed to represent the culmination of an extended research project or creative effort.  

To be included in Showcase Day, every presenter’s work — whether a poster, presentation or performance — must be reviewed and approved by the presenter’s “Showcase Advisor,” who is typically the faculty member who supervised the work being presented.

Showcase Advisors may be a graduate mentor or faculty member from an undergraduate capstone, honors course, independent study, or other extended research project or creative effort. For example:  

• A chemistry student who has been working on a project under the supervision of a faculty member would ask that faculty member to serve as their Showcase Advisor.
• A history student who wants to present a capstone research paper would ask the faculty member who taught (or is teaching) that capstone class to serve as their Showcase Advisor.
• An MS or PhD student in atmospheric sciences who wants to present research conducted under the guidance of a faculty member would ask that faculty member to serve as their Showcase Advisor.

All Showcase Advisors are responsible for ensuring student presentations, performances and posters are well-prepared before students submit their work. Showcase Advisors' names will be included on all student work. 

Note: Detailed instructions for Showcase Advisors and student presenters will be available online soon.

Identify which presentations and poster sessions are taking place during your normal class meeting time. Ask your students to determine which offerings contain concepts from your course and to select one to attend. (Note: A detailed schedule will be released closer to the event date.)

Then, consider using one (or a variation) of the assignments below:

Asking Questions: Prepare specific and open-ended questions for the presentation or poster session you have decided to attend.

Report: Write a short report summarizing a presentation or poster session you attended, identifying the following information:  

• Title and brief summary of the project
• Indicate a concept, test or something else relevant to class
• Discuss their thoughts on how the project relates to that concept

Looking for a Major or Minor: View a poster or presentation and take note of the academic discipline in which it was produced. Write down the name of the student's Showcase Advisor and then read the Showcase Advisor's biography on the UAlbany website. Write 250 words on why you think the subject they teach could be a good major or minor for you.  

Connections to the Classroom: Write a 250-word reflection that connects a poster session or presentation you attended to one of the texts you’ve read in class.  

Selfie: Take a selfie in front of a poster, post it to your course’s Brightspace discussion board and explain why you found that poster interesting.

Scavenger Hunt: Find a poster related to the topic of your class. Take a picture of it and in a brief reflection explain how it connects to a topic discussed in class. Post this to your course’s Brightspace discussion board.

Oral Presentation Evaluation: Attend any type of oral presentation and evaluate the speaker. Consider these questions: What did the speaker do right? What did the speaker do wrong? Was the argument clear? Was there evidence? And did the presenter interpret the evidence in ways that supported the project’s central claims?

Poster Presentation Evaluation: Attend a poster presentation and evaluate the poster’s design as well as the author’s presentation of it. Ask the author, “Can you tell me about your research?” and compare the response to how it was presented on the poster. Consider these questions: What was the poster’s central research question or hypothesis? How was the research conducted? What were the results and were they clearly conveyed?  

Performance or Art Installation Evaluation: Attend an art installation or performance and evaluate the work. Consider these questions: Can you connect the work to themes and/or concepts discussed in class? Did the work evoke any feelings or emotions? What message did the work send?  

If your course includes a semester-long project, ask your students to present at Showcase. The Minerva Center for High-Impact Practices has online resources to help your students draft abstracts and create posters.  

If your course does not include a semester-long project, ask your students to attend presentations and/or poster sessions relevant to your course content and provide them with reflection questions to answer.  

Alternatively, identify which presentations and poster sessions are taking place during your normal class meeting time. Ask your students to determine which offerings contain concepts from your course and to select one to attend. (Note: A detailed schedule will be released closer to the event date.)

Then, consider using one (or a variation) of the assignments below:

Quotation-Comment-Question (QCQ): Select a quotation from a poster. Interpret and/or comment on that quotation in light of the poster’s subject. And then ask a new question that could form the basis of future research in that subject.

Future Research: After attending Showcase, describe a research project that you would like to conduct and present at next year’s event.

Interdisciplinary Thinking: Visit the posters and/or presentations of an academic discipline different from yours and make connections between that subject and your own. Reflect on how you might tackle a similar problem in your major.  

Ask your students to form groups (or place them in teams yourself) and create a poster presentation, panel discussion, lightning talks or other presentations relevant to a reoccurring theme or topic in your course.  

Groups can collectively develop an individual project idea, or you can assign each group a specific theme or topic.  

Ideally, these projects will translate into presentations and/or poster sessions during next year's Showcase Day. To that end, the Minerva Center for High-Impact Practices has online resources to help your students draft abstracts and create posters. 

In lieu of an assignment or project, ask your students to volunteer as support staff on Showcase Day. They'll gain valuable experience managing logistics and help ensure a smooth day of events.

We'll need volunteers for a variety of tasks, from pre-event setup and post-event cleanup to visitor way-finding and presenter registration.

Note: Specific instructions — including how students can sign up for volunteering and how instructors can track students' volunteering — will be shared closer to the event.