About SURE

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 that can be categorized by four broad categories. 

Research Writing and Methodologies

Literature searches and reviews, information literacy, developing survey questions, community engagement, research protocols, technical writing, academic writing, methodological pluralism

Research Management, Ethics and Technical Skills 

Research data analysis, triangulation, research data management, data sovereignty(OCAP), open science, ethics, citations, lab safety, WHMIS, specialized training (NVIVO, SPSS, Zotero, survey design, etc.) 

Communication and Research Mobilization

Finding and talking with a faculty supervisor, inteview skills, writing techniques, open publishing, presentations and posters, journal articles and publishing process, abstracts, writing retreats, researcher profiles. 

Professional Development and Entrepreneurship 

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Indigenous and community-engaged research, cover letters and resumes, professional presence, transition to grad school, entrepreneurship, scholarly impact, networking.

"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 your with other student researchers and research teams, faculty researchers looking for team members, and training opportunities from a variety of USask partners.

Coming soon...

The SURE Community of Practice online platform where you can join online discussions, promote your research profile, find research training resources, and share your research experience with a USask-wide community of students, faculty and staff who are connected to undergraduate research activities.

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.

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! 

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

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.

Coming soon...

The SURE Community of Practice online platform where you can join online discussions, promote your research profile, find reserach training resources, and share your research experience with a USask-wide community of students, faculty and staff who are connected to undergaduate research activities.

Subscribe to our Newsletter to get updates and details.

Student Stories

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Winter Events' Schedule

Make sure you're subscribed to our mailing list to receive our emails and newsletter, and keep an eye on your USask Inbox and our Social Media channels.

Upcoming Events!

Innivation Saskatchewan Walking Tour of 3 Facilities

Join us for a walking tour of 3 Innovation Saskatchewan facilities!

We'll meet at Collider Saskatoon, #230-15 Innovation Boulevard

March 17th - 11:00am-12:00pm
SURE Discovery Tour - Energy Exchanger Research Lab
The Energy Exhanger Research Lab in Mechanical Engineering researches measuring aerosol transfer through energy exchangers which is important for providing clean, fresh air to occupants in a building as well as research into frost growth on membranes, with the aim of developing frost free equipment, such as freezers.
March 24, 11:30am-12:30pm
1B30 Engineering Building

  

SURE Discovery Tour - Digital Research Centre (DRC) Library

The Digital Research Centre (DRC) is dedicated to providing digital scholarship support, promoting collaboration and creation, and making research, art, and cultural works more accessible and useful for research.

March 26, 11:30am-12:30pm
Murray Library Rm. 230

 

SURE Discovery Tour - Bioanalytical Expertise and Training Hub

We are both a training hub for bioanalysis using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry and an expert resource in bioanalysis that supports collaborative research. As a training hub, we guide trainees towards developing bioanalytical skills that can be applied for their perspective projects.

We cater to a diverse group of high-quality personnel, including M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, undergraduate students, visiting students and scholars, postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, research associates, technicians, and faculty members.

April 1 (no joke), 11:30am-12:30pm
Second floor of the Health Sciences building (HSC), Rm.2D10

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

img_2277.jpg
L to R: Dr. Baljit Singh, Mykyta Shvets, Leah Macfarlane, Chi Vu, Dr. Debby Burshtyn

 

 

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

Co-Curricular Record (CCR) Notice

As you may have heard, USask will be retiring the Co-Curricular Record (CCR) system on May 1, 2026. This means that you’ll need to complete your SURE CCR eligibility form by March 31. Remember you'll need to have completed a minimum of 10 hours of SURE programming (each event counts towards 1hr) between May 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026 to be eligible for the 2025/26 SURE CCR. Once you have documented your 10 hours of programing you can fill out the SURE Program Participation Survey that will give us the information, we need to submit the 2025/26 SURE CCR submission on your behalf.  

Although the USask’s CCR system is retiring, be assured that uRSAW and the SURE program will continue to provide research skills training and networking opportunities through workshops and events. The uRSAW Initiative is currently developing its new 5-year strategic plan which aspires to continue developing a welcoming, empowering and strategic community for undergraduate students to feel inspired by, prepared for, and experienced with; research, scholarly and artistic works (RSAW) at the University of Saskatchewan on supported and connected pathways to discovery, leadership and success. 

If you have any questions about the SURE Co-Curricular Record, you can email us at undergraduate.research@usask.ca. 

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.

Training

 Category

Link

Tri-Agency TCPSCore2 course on research ethics. 

 Research management

Link to Tri-Agency TCPS Core2 Ethics

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

Link to Library course on academic integrity

USask Behavioural Research Ethics webinar

 Research management

Link to USask Behavioural Research Ethics webinar

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.

CHASR YouTube Site

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: 

To register for a specific course, visit their EDGE portal.