SOURCE Mission Statement 

The mission of the Symposium for University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) is to provide a university-wide forum for Central Washington University (CWU) students, encouraging equity, diversity, and inclusivity, representing all disciplines and experience levels, to present their mentored research, scholarship, and creative works in a juried environment that meets professional conference standards and expectations.

Accomplishing this mission will foster best-practice-teaching and mentoring, promote the significance and relevance of research, scholarship and creative works, engage a range of CWU stakeholders in distinguishing aspects of CWU’s educational environment, and enhance the professional skills of students.

SOURCE 2020 - Online! 

The event will begin Monday, May 18th, at 8a and end Sunday, May 24th, at 9p.  

Abstract deadline: April 15th, 2020

Presenters must upload their posters, slides and video/audio files by May 8th. 

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) and the SOURCE Committee are partnering with the Student Opportunity Center (SOC) to host SOURCE 2020 as an online event. 

Asynchronous video presentations will make up the sessions for all presentation types and disciplines now that we are in a digital format. Sessions will be organized by type of presentation and discipline. The event webpage will be password protected, but all videos will be available to the CWU community. Therefore, it’s important that you talk with your faculty mentor to ensure that your video includes information that you have permission to share. They may have advice for you as you create your presentation, and they should approve your finished presentation before you upload it.

• Voice-Over Poster: Create a poster using PowerPoint. Record your voice while you discuss key areas of your research (3-minutes max). Then, turn your presentation into a video showing your poster while you talk about it. 
  See more information below.
• Voice-Over Slide Deck/Oral Presentation: Create your slides in PowerPoint.  Record a voice over while you discuss your research and move through your slides (10-minutes max). Turn your presentation into a video that goes through your slides as you discuss the key point of your research.
  See more information below.

• Other Video Options: For presenters who want to share their research or creative projects in a different way, you can record a video or create a multimedia presentation that discusses your project. This can be a recording of you as you talk to the camera, a combination of other mediums including audio or images, or otherwise display information for your audience in a video format. This method may be a good option for creative works, constructed objects, art-based presentations, and creative performances.

Judges and others from the campus community who want to virtually attend sessions can do so at any time during the 7-day event, and they can post comments and questions for presenters. Student presenters are encouraged to address questions and comments.

Presenters must upload their posters, slides and video/audio files by May 8th. By April 20^th, OUR will provide presenters with a link to the SOC webpage where they can upload files.  

• Supported file types: 

• • Documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt, and .pdf)
  • Images (.png, .gif, and .jpg)

• • Video (.mpg, .mov, and .wmv)
• • Audio (.wav, .mp3, and .mp4)

We recommend using PowerPoint to create your poster or slides and voice-over, because it’s available to all CWU students and has simple tools to help you design, complete and then record the presentation within the same program. If you would prefer to use other software or tools to create your presentation, feel free to do so as long as it still accomplishes the goal of communicating your research in a professional format.

For help, start here, then learn about exporting your finished presentation as a video here. You can also record your screen on a Mac or on a PC. And there are plenty of options for free video editing software that you can use if you want to combine your screen recording with video of you discussing your research. As you’re preparing your video, remember to check that your video will be compatible with SOC’s file types, listed above. If it’s not, you’ll need to use an editing software to convert it.

If you have questions, email us: our@cwu.edu.

reSOURCE Award

CWU Libraries and the Friends of the Brooks Library will award up to four SOURCE projects the reSOURCE award for outstanding use of library resources in your project. This includes books, journals, Archives & Special Collections, databases, library equipment, and even our programs and spaces!  The library faculty and staff themselves are resources in your research journey.  See https://www.lib.cwu.edu/ for all that the CWU Libraries have to offer. To apply, write a brief essay, less than 250 words, on how you used the library and/or its resources in your work and submit the essay with SOURCE abstracts (Feb 24^th – Apr 3^rd). A library committee will select the winners and each of the four awardees will received $100.