Undergraduate research is a key aspect of the Carnegie Mellon experience. It gives students the ability to become active participants in intellectual and creative communities, explore topics in greater depth, and grow as scholars and leaders. Undergraduate researchers make real contributions to faculty-led projects, helping to advance knowledge in crucial areas such as climate change, biomedicine, mathematics, arts and culture, and cutting-edge technologies. 

This year, Meeting of the Minds turns 30, and we are thrilled to continue this celebrated Carnegie Mellon tradition! The students’ in-person presentations will once again be complemented by the virtual Symposium platform, where their posters, slide decks, videos, and other presentation materials can be viewed by audiences beyond campus, including loved ones, alumni, and our generous donors who do so much to make undergraduate research possible at Carnegie Mellon. 

Our heartfelt thanks go out to the members of the CMU community who have made this day possible: our dedicated faculty, who welcome undergraduate students into their scholarship; our OURSD Committee, who ensure transparent and equitable selection processes for our programs; our Trustees, who carefully steer our university’s mission and ability to support research enterprises; and President Farnam Jahanian, Provost Jim Garrett, and Vice Provost for Education Kate Barraclough, who are unwavering in their commitment to—and material support of—undergraduate research.  

Finally, congratulations to our student researchers, who think big and do not shy away from pressing intellectual and societal challenges. Their contributions to knowledge make a difference to their mentors’ work, to their research fields, and to the future. 

Getting the most out of Meeting of the Minds:

This year, our symposium will take place in person on campus, but we welcome you here to our online platform to find the times and locations of the presentations, as well as to view a sample of each presentation online. 

If you are on campus on April 30th, please stop by the Cohon University Center between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm to see our student presentations. There will also be a satellite location for SCS students in the Gates-Hillman Building.

How to Locate In-Person Presentations:

Along the top menu, you will see a ‘Presentations’ link. Here you can search for a presenter’s name, faculty name, or project title. This will take you to the student’s presentation, where you can click on the individual page to view the time and location of the in-person presentation. Projects can be filtered using the menus on the left if you are looking for a specific group or research type. The page will also show the abstract and a sample poster or presentation of the student’s work.

We encourage viewers to browse multiple student presentations to get a sense of the breadth and scope of undergraduate research and creative scholarship taking place at Carnegie Mellon. 

Thank you for attending and for taking part in Meeting of the Minds.  

Richelle Bernazzoli, Alex Johnson, Jen Weidenhof, and Paige Zalman