GT² presents student research

What may be one of the most overlooked student events of this year took place a few weeks ago. GT², or Georgia Tech Graduate Technical Symposium, was a two-day professional conference held by Tech's Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA).

Students from Tech and from all across the country came to the symposium to present their research in the fields of engineering and applied science, as well as to compete in oral and poster competitions, network with others in their fields and speak with recruiters from various private and governmental organizations.

This year, the event, held March 15-16, also included a wine and cheese mixer as well as a catered lunch and dinner, and cash prizes ranging from 500 to 1000 dollars were awarded for the oral and speech competitions.

This year's conference theme was "Merging Multiculturalism," and while there was greater diversity among attendees this year compared to previous years, organizers are still pushing for more diversity and participation in years to follow.

BGSA attempted to reach out to graduate students of all cultures through advertisements in WREK radio, the 'Nique, professional magazines and the website www.bgsa.gatech.edu/gt2, in addition to emails sent through various department heads at different schools.

Chris Green, BGSA president and graduate Mechanical Engineering student, spoke about the importance of having diversity at the conference. "When you work in a team you need to be able to understand one another, assess each other's strengths and weaknesses and embrace our differences in order to do the best job possible. That's why we not only need to interact with people in our same field of research, but in other fields, from other places or who have had different experiences so that we can be prepared for the professional world," Green said.

But adding to the diversity of the conference certainly was not the only reason to attend. The poster and the speech competitions gave graduate students a much-needed opportunity to practice presenting their research, something many will find themselves doing more often toward the end of their student careers and through their professional lives.

The poster competition required the creation of a large poster complete with charts and graphics as well as a short explanation of the student's work, while the speech competition required a 15-minute speech accompanied by visual aids and followed by a five-minute question and answer session. People in the speech competition were scheduled based on their field of research so that they could view and learn from other's presentations, and entrants in both competitions were judged by experts and professionals in their or a closely related field.

In fact, it was an undergraduate student, Marvin Q. Jones from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, who won the poster competition. Although the conference was not specifically designed for undergrads, the conference accepts undergraduates who are doing outstanding research and pairs them with graduate mentors who can counsel them on the difficult path to post-collegiate education.

There were also numerous panel discussions, including "Life after the PhD," "The Art of Networking," "Expanding Your Entrepreneurial and Consulting Opportunities" and "An Hour with a Diversity Coach."

Some attendees, such as graduating PhD student Otis Smart, simply enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the other students and company representatives who were in attendance.

"It was nice to find out what other people are doing and take some time out to talk to peers in the same field. Plus, it was nice to have companies try to recruit me," Smart said.

Smart won third place in the speech competition. At first he was daunted by the prospect of the 15-minute speech.

"[However], I had been doing research for five years; it took no time to put together a presentation," Smart said. Having come from an undergraduate education at Morehouse, a historically black university, Otis found it encouraging to see the diversity among the attendees as well as the diversity among the research, and that is exactly what the BGSA committee was aiming for.

Next year, BGSA hopes to do things bigger and better: more companies and more students from more schools in more states and from more backgrounds.

"There are a lot of powerful, intelligent people all over the nation. We need to bring together a critical mass of people who are excelling to be role models and hopefully inspire other students to do research and continue in their graduate studies," Green said.