On November 20, the Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) hosted Early Career Research Day at the UCLA Faculty Center. The hugely successful event was coordinated by Warren Mori, TV Singh, and Joanne Fife. They organized a buffet lunch followed by a poster session. The event was open to member of the UCLA community who are interested in learning about their fellow UCLA researchers’ projects. 

 

This event was an extension of IDRE’s Early Career Researcher’s Group which brings scholars together who are engaged in developing and implementing digital research methods. When asked about the goal of the event, Warren Mori said, “We are trying to have a group that has activities and functions for people to socialize, share their experiences, talk about their ideas. If they start to see something that makes sense within their own research they can then bring it to the attention of the faculty. The goal is to drive collaboration through the younger people.” Specifically this event is aimed to highlight the diverse research activities in computational science, data science, information science, and digital scholarship at UCLA.

Topics ranged from breast cancer to plasma physics to language use and narrative structures. The myriad of topics fostered engaging conversations between the post docs and attendees. It offered by rising faculty and researchers, post-docs, and graduate and undergraduate students an opportunity to present their projects and network with colleagues across campus. TV Singh said, “With forty poster presentations, over 80 researchers participated in the event. All presenters were enthusiastic while talking about their work. It was especially   nice to see a few talented undergraduate students presenting their research side by side with other early career researchers.”