Welcome to SURE
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Are you an undergraduate student looking to connect with the research and researchers at the University of Saskatchewan? JOIN the Society for Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) and find the opportunities, connections and skills you need to engage with research at USask. |
This Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Artistic Works (uRSAW) community invites students to contribute to the research activities of USask and provides training, networking, mentoring, and facilitation to accelerate undergraduate research and help students build personalized pathways from student to scholar. SURE elevates the impact of undergraduate research and supports emerging scholars to share their findings and build their research profiles with poster sessions, panels, articles, blogs, posts and podcasts that celebrate uRSAW activities. SURE, also recognizes excellence in undergraduate RSAW at our annual capstone event, the SURE Symposium, which showcases and awards research posters, presentations and creative performances. Undergraduate students at all stages of their scholarship journey are welcome to join this supportive community of practice as we teach and learn together. Experience research and discovery together at USask.
"SURE supported and allowed me the opportunity to grow as a researcher. The workshops provided an opportunity to learn and integrate different techniques into my research. Specifically the SURE symposium provided me with a safe space to present my research, get feedback and gain experience in knowledge translation."
SURE Community Member
Note: all students at USask conducting research must be supervised, and all research must be pre-approved (if required) by the relevant ethics committee. Do not start a research project or conduct any research unless you are approved and supported to do so. Scholarly and artistic research projects may be completed independently if they meet ethics standards for that discipline.
See our current event schedule below!
SURE coordinates and facilitates a variety of research skill development workshops, panels, and drop-in sessions that support development of the skills students need to conduct research at the University of Saskatchewan. Partnering with the Library, Career Services, Indigenous Student Achievment Pathways (ISAP), Media Production, and more, workshops provide transferable skill development.
"SURE supported my research experience by helping me to think about the different ways to structure my literature review, consider how to share research to a non-scientific audience, and gave me an opportunity to present at my first poster presentation."
SURE Community Member
SURE organizes networking and social events that connect you with other student researchers and research teams, faculty researchers looking for team members, and training opportunities from a variety of USask partners.
Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get updates and details delivered to your email.
The SURE Community of Practice elevates the impact of undergraduate contributions to research, scholarly and artistic works here at USask through research mobilization, recognition, celebration, and dissemination across disciplines. SURE supports emerging scholars to share their findings and build their research profiles with poster sessions, panels, articles, blogs, posts and podcasts that celebrate uRSAW activities.
This annual capstone event is open to all undergraduate students who are involved in a research, scholarly or artistic work project for the summer or students who have research to share from one of their classes. This event aims to showcase and celebrate undergraduate research from all disciplines with the USask community through presentations and awards!
Undergraduate Research Storytelling Competition
In this competition, student researchers have the opportunity to share why and how their research project affects the world around us. Through a competitive adjudication process, the top pitch will be awarded the incredible opportunity to work with USask's Media Production team to create a two-minute video of their research that will be featured on the Research Profile and Impact website and throughout USask social media channels.
Join the SURE Community
The SURE Community of Practice, an online platform for undergraduate research connections where students, mentors, and supervisors can join discussions, promote their research profiles, find research training resources, and share their undergraduate research experiences.
SURE Community of Practice Benefits
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Student Benefits |
Supervisor/Mentor Benefits |
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Undergraduate students at all stages of their scholarship journey are welcome to join this supportive community of practice as we teach and learn together. Membership is also open to faculty and staff who engage with undergraduate research or research skill development training here at USask and want to keep up-to-date on what's happening accross campus.
Subscribe to our Newsletter to get involved.
By signing up, you agree to receive emails from the SURE program. You may unsubscribe from our email list at any time.
We also recommend following the Undergraduate Research Initiative on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook Find those links here.
Subscribe to our Newsletter to get updates and details.
Upcoming Events
SURE Symposium
This annual capstone event is open to all undergraduate students who are involved in a research, scholarly or artistic work project for the summer or students who have research to share from one of their classes. This event aims to showcase and celebrate undergraduate research from all disciplines with the USask community through presentations and awards!
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The SURE Symposium takes place at the end of August on the Saskatoon Campus. Cash Prizes in various awards categories are sponsored by the Office Vice-President Research (OVPR) and by University partners.
Stay tuned for information and upcoming application dealines for the 2026 SURE Symposium...
SURE Symposium 2025 - Award Winners:
The OVPR Promising Future Scholar Award - 1st Place
- Awarded to an undergraduate student whose project demonstrates excellence in all components of the research, scholarly, or artistic process, from asking original questions to sharing the story of their project in a meaningful way.
- One award of $500 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by OVPR and signed and presented by Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-President Research.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Katherine Chang
Poster Title: TRAPing hippocampal-dependent fear memories.
Supervisors and Collaborators: Dr. Justin Botterill, Royce Hermanson, Alina Trofimova, Sarah Shaban, Dara Kwochka
Description of Research: We used a transgenic mouse (TRAP2) which allows for conditional and permanent labeling of recently activated neurons. Mice underwent a hippocampal-dependent fear conditioning followed by genetic labeling. We then used immunofluorescence staining and microscopy to quantify hippocampal cells involved in learning and memory retrieval.
The OVPR Promising Future Scholar Award - 2nd Place
- Awarded to an undergraduate student whose project demonstrates excellence in all components of the research, scholarly, or artistic process, from asking original questions to sharing the story of their project in a meaningful way.
- One award of $300 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by OVPR and signed and presented by Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-President Research.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Kevin Kolibinson
Poster Title: Potent Potential: Using Synchrotron Radiation Micro-Computed Tomography (SRµCT) to analyze trichome diversity in two Cannabis Sativa cultivars.
The OVPR Promising Future Scholar Award - 3rd Place
- Awarded to an undergraduate student whose project demonstrates excellence in all components of the research, scholarly, or artistic process, from asking original questions to sharing the story of their project in a meaningful way.
- One award of $200 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by OVPR and signed and presented by Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-President Research.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Graeme Hopkins
Poster Title: Taenidium barretti from Quaternary Proglacial Varved Silts in Saskatchewan.
The 2025 uRSAW Storytelling Competition Award: sponsored by CGPS
- Awarded to the student who demonstrates excellence in communicating their research, scholarly, or artistic work through the Storytelling Pitch Submission.
- One award of $500 will be offered. The student will also receive a Certificate generated by uRSAW and signed by Dr. Burshtyn, Dean of the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and presented by Lori Lisitza, Executive Officer, CGPS.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Natalie Vanidour
Poster Title: Pedalling forward: Development of an inter-provincial functional electrical stimulation cycling community of practice.
Career Services and the FUSION Future Skills Innovation Network: Skills Articulation Award
- Awarded to the student who is best able to articulate how their research experiences have supported their development of the USask Student Competencies.
- One award of $500 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by uRSAW and signed by Kimberly Matheson, Director of Career Services and presented by Brette Kristoff, FUSION Skills Innovation Lead.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Stefanie Kiriazopoulos
Poster Title: Comparing Emergency Department Pain Management Practices for Pediatric Musculoskeletal Injuries.
Career Services and the FUSION Future Skills Innovation Network: Peoples’ Choice Award
- Awarded to the student whose work is voted as the people’s choice by the attendees of the symposium.
- One award of $500 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by uRSAW and signed by Kim Matheson, Director of Career Services and presented by Brette Kristoff, FUSION Skills Innovation Lead.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Angi Patel
Poster Title: Lived experiences of Métis cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers in Saskatchewan.
The OVPR Community Engagement Award
- Awarded to an undergraduate student whose project work has strong potential for community benefit, with a preference given to projects that have engaged with appropriate community members.
- One award of $500 will be offered. The student will also receive a certificate generated by OVPR and signed and presented by Dr. Baljit Singh, Vice-President Research.
Award Recipient for the 2025 SURE Symposium: Enoch Yang
Poster Title: Design, Construction, and Testing of a Lower Body Negative Pressure (LBNP) System for Assessing Vascular Function in Humans.
This annual event is open to all undergraduate students who are involved in a research, scholarly, artistic, or applied project for the summer or students who have research to share from one of their classes. Showcase and celebrate your work with the USask community!
This event aims to welcome undergraduate students from all disciplines to showcase their summer research. It is led by the Office of the Vice President Research with sponsorship from USask Career Services and RBC Future Launch and support from the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
The SURE Summer Symposium 2023 takes place in-person at Convocation Hall on Thursday, August 31st from 8:30 am to 5 pm. Awards Ceremony begins at 3:00 pm.
Link to 2023 SURE Summer Symposium Program
SURE Symposium 2023
Fall 2023 SURE Symposium online (USask NSID required to view)
Winners:
Honourable Mentions: Jacob Pilon and Morgan Lehmann
Second Place (Tie): Hya El-Baroudy and Huzaifa Saeed
First Place: Ryan Chan
SURE Symposium 2022
Summer 2022 SURE Symposium online (USask NSID required to view)
Winners:
Honourable Mentions: Jesse Adrian Amanda Ewen Morgan Lehmann Tessa Lester Vanessa Brown
Third Place: Mykyta Shvets
Second Place: Leah MacFarlane
First Place: Chi Vu
SURE Research, Scholarly and Artistic Works Fall 2021 Symposium
Research Acceleration and Strategic Initiatives is pleased to announce our new SURE (Student Undergraduate Research Experience) RSAW (Research Scholarly and Artistic Works) Fall 2021 Symposium. This fall Symposium complements the SURE summer Symposium and the USSU Spring Symposium as an additional campus-wide symposium open to all undergraduate students in all disciplines.
Details: The Symposium was held online via Canvas between November 30th and December 7th.
Symposium Winners:
Honourable Mentions:
Katie Sofko: Changes in Tibial Articular Cartilage T2 Relaxation Time with Load – An in vivo Repeatability Study (authors Sofko KG, Elebute I, Cui L, Bzowey N, McWalter EJ) Engineering
Kayley Lawrenz: The Experience of COVID-19 in Rural Saskatchewan Long-term Care Homes (with Ivy Myge, B.A., Rebeca S. Pereira, BA., & Paulette V. Hunter, Ph.D.) Health Sciences
Yash Tendulkar: Experiences Supporting Videoconference Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Rural Saskatchewan Long-term Care Homes (Supervisor Dr. Paulette Hunter) Health Sciences
Award winners: Second Place (three way tie)
Alina Sami: The Role of APOBEC3C Deoxycytidine Deaminases in Somatic Mutagenesis (supervisor Dr. Linda Chelico) Health Sciences
Cindy Li: Design and synthesis of inhibitors for Glucocerebrosidase, a top biomarker and therapeutic target for Parkinson’s Disease (with Dr. Chris Phenix Morshed Chowdhury) Physical and Life Sciences
Norah Ridley: An exploration of documents' privacy leaks (with Enrico Branca and Natalia Stakhanova) Computer Science and Math
Top Award: First Place
Leah Houseman: "It’s a Violation of My Freedom”: Getting Informed, Social Media, and Face Mask Use in Canada (Supervisor Dr. Scott Thompson) Social Sciences and Business
Student Stories
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Additional Training Resources
Communication is central to research skills. Please view Upcoming Events for communications sessions or go to our YouTube channel for past webinars on communications.
USask Library: The University of Saskatchewan Library Student Learning Services has a large number of upcoming and past/recorded webinars on research, communication and citations which are all eligible to go towards your SURE credit.
Research Excellence and Innovation offered series of six online webinars and four live in-person Lunch and Learn events around Entrepreneurship in summer 2022. Recordings can be found on our YouTube site.
USask Safety Services training is eligible for SURE credit. The most common safety training for students includes: Covid-19 training, Biosafety training, Laboratory Safety, WHMIS 2015, and Safety Orientiation for Employees.
All Safety courses qualify for SURE credit under Research Management.
Both human and animal research ethics training is eligible for SURE credit. Students actively working in human or animal research must take training.
All ethics training goes under Research Management.
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Tri-Agency TCPSCore2 course on research ethics. |
Research management | |
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USask Animal Care and Research Support: Animal User Training |
Research management |
Link to Animal Care and Research Support - includes links to ethics training |
| USask library course on academic integrity | Research management | |
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USask Behavioural Research Ethics webinar |
Research management |
USask Career Services offers many student-focused services, from career assessment (knowing your strengths/personality type to career readiness competencies) to one-on-one career planning (resumes, cover letters, practice interviews), through to professionalism in your online persona (LinkedIn and more) and career fairs, to connect you with potential employers.
All USask Career Services events and activities qualify toward your SURE co-curricular credit under Professional Development.
Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research - CHASR
If you're conducting social science research, past webinars offered by CHASR may help! Training in mixed methods design, survey design, NVIVO, triangulation, program evaluation, GIS, social network analysis, SPSS, and more. Any of these past recorded webinars can count towards your SURE credit, under Research Management.
Note: if you are taking training in Python, Matlab, or any kind of coding or analytical program used in your discipline, those training hours can count towards Research Management in the SURE program.
Mitacs training
Mitacs is a Canadian federal program to support students for industry and employment. Their extensive training curriculum combines in-person and online events. All Canadian postsecondary students may access this training for free.
Mitacs courses surround eight unique course bundles, each consisting of an online, self-paced course and its corresponding instructor led sessions. The course bundle themes include:
- Networking skills
- Project and time management
- Reconciliation and EDI
- Communication skills
- Career planning
- R&D management
- Leadership skills
- Writing and presentation skills
To register for a specific course, visit their EDGE portal.
Previously recorded SURE webinars and other Undergraduate RSAW evernts are all available for viewing. Follow the links below to SURE playlists on YouTube, where you can also subscribe and be notified when we add new videos.
- Communication
- Social media for researchers
- CHASR: Research Analysis
- How to Get Involved in Undergraduate Research
- Research Data Management
- Professional Development
- Entrepreneurship
- Publishing Research
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research
- Developing Good Habits
- Jeff Perera Gender of Success and Failure
- SURE program full playlist