May 27, 2026 | Abbi Duhart | News Editor
May 28, the Academic Excellence Showcase will start at 8:30 a.m., continuing all day throughout campus. AES is a day for Western students — especially juniors and seniors — to highlight the academic excellence that they’ve worked on throughout their time here in the form of research projects, posters, presentations, fine art performances and more.
The Program for Undergraduate Research Experiences runs AES. The program’s main goal is to help students connect with researchers and gain experience in research. Because Western is a smaller school, many undergraduate students also have access to tenured professors doing research to learn from.
Students who choose to present must have a faculty mentor, typically the professor they worked on their project with. By presenting at AES, students in all disciplines gain valuable conference experience, build their resume and interact with members of the community. Local groups are being encouraged to come, such as the chambers of commerce of three different cities, to scout out the talent of students who are close to graduation, another benefit of presenting.
Members of the public of any age and students alike are encouraged to attend to see the integral research Western’s undergraduate students have been participating in. It is free to attend, and, for the day, parking around campus will not be ticketed.
AES begins the day with a Presidential Plenary at 8:30 a.m. in the Werner University Center’s Willamette Room. This has been a tradition of AES since 2017, where a keynote speaker will come in to talk, as well as a few faculty members. This year, the keynote speaker is David Heil, a Western alum and science educator. Heil is the host of the PBS show “Newton’s Apple,” a show reminiscent of “Bill Nye the Science Guy.” He also co-developed SEEDS, a program that promotes STEM for pre-K learners and their caregivers, and was further the associate director at OMSI for 13 years. According to the AES website, “David will reflect on his 50-year career as a scientist, educator, TV personality, museum administrator, author, and global consultant. His talk is going to be about how doing research as a student at WOU can help a student’s career, no matter the major.” Faculty speakers during the plenary this year include Brianne Salvati with her discussion on her “Telehealth Lifestyle Pilot Study for Improving Occupational Performance in Older Adults,” and Ryan Topper with his discussion on “Tree Prisons, Environmental Memory, and African Literature.”
Maren Anderson, the director of PURE, emphasized that students should attend to “really explore what other things we’re doing, because one of the things about being an undergraduate is you might go into school thinking you’re gonna do one thing and then realize, no, you really like this other thing.” She added, “For students it’s really good not only to celebrate the stuff that people have been working on so hard to produce in their research. We want to celebrate what our students are producing. It’s a really good way for people who maybe haven’t decided what their major is or think they have a major but maybe need a minor or maybe are just curious to come and see what other divisions, other departments, do, because you can easily change your mind and go major in something you didn’t think you were going to. That is what a liberal arts education is for.”
Some examples of presentations occurring throughout the day include special education master’s degree capstone projects, which are three-minute videos presented in a loop in four different Hamersly Library rooms; posters in the library; senior capstones for the history department, including an oral history of Monmouth; computer science projects; earth science projects, including advances in river restoration; the English department’s end of year awards, which will occur directly after the plenary; two art shows, including a senior art gallery exhibition; art and design portfolio presentations; dance pieces; and film studies in communication sessions with 10-15 minute movies. Additionally, there will be a poster contest where people can vote on their favorite poster. The Center for Professional Pathways will also be hosting a resume mocktail event in which they make attendees a mocktail and have a resume-building game in the library.
“It’s really important, just from a publicity point of view. This is extremely important for WOU to show off all of the cool stuff we’re doing. We’re doing fun things but also the really exciting research we’re doing and to be visible to the towns and the industries around here so people can really understand, there’s lots of opportunities for the industries around here to partner with people on campus,” Anderson explained.
The presentations that occur during AES are very unique from year to year. Reflecting on a past project that really stood out to her, Anderson discussed Gareth Hopkins from the biology department, who made an app for endangered turtles to better crowdsource turtle sightings. “I love that one, especially because that was the biology department working with the computer science department. And that, because they made an app, then they could use the data from the app in his research. And I want more of that to happen.”
In terms of this year’s AES, she explained, “I’m looking forward to the three-minute talks, those will be rapid fire and fun and awesome. I’m looking forward to the little movies — and I guess I like movies — cause I’m looking forward to the little movies in the communications. I’m really looking forward to the plenary and I hope people come to that because it’s really cool that this guy’s an alumnus and is gonna come and tell us about all these cool things that he did.”
Overall, students, faculty and community members are all encouraged to attend any event that sparks their interest or just to support the phenomenal research Western students across all disciplines are doing. The schedule for AES can be found on Western’s website here.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
