The first Steinmetz Symposium in April 1991 was a modest effort to showcase undergraduate research featuring presentations from 130 students over the course of an afternoon.
When the 36th anniversary of the symposium arrives Friday, May 8, the number of students involved will have swelled to beyond 500 – including 190 oral presentations and 118 poster presentations. More than 200 students are involved in dance performances, two musical concerts and an art exhibit.
The symposium is no longer squeezed into a few hours in the afternoon. Instead, classes are canceled for the day to allow faculty, staff, students and visiting family to sample projects in all fields – the arts, humanities, social sciences and sciences and engineering.
Anne Pearl '26, an environmental science major with a geoscience concentration, is among hundreds of students participating in this year's Steinmetz Symposium. She is working on a lake sediment core from her trip to Peru last summer.
“I am continually awed by the energy and joy with which our students embrace their creative endeavors, scholarship and research,” said Matt Anderson, director of undergraduate research and associate professor of computer science. “Working shoulder-to-shoulder with their faculty mentors, they are producing new ideas to address the myriad confounding problems our world faces.”
To emphasize interdisciplinary connections, one change for this year is to hold a single interdisciplinary poster session in Schaffer Library from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. In the past, there were three separate poster sessions fragmented by disciple in different locations.
As part of this year’s event, the Templeton Institute will host “The Powers of Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research: Textual Technologies” at 11:30 a.m. in Olin 115 Auditorium. It will be moderated by Vauhini Vara, an award-winning author and journalist for The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2023.
The Chamber Music Showcase featuring live pieces or digital recordings performed by students returns after making its debut last year. Directed by resident ethnomusicologist and department chair Jennifer Milioto Matsue, the event is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Emerson Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center.
At 4 p.m., 70 performers will bring their peripatetic moves to the stage at the Nott Memorial for the annual Lothridge Festival of Dance. Doors open at 3:30 p.m., with attendance first come, first served. Seating is limited.
Six campus dance clubs and teams will be represented in this year’s performance: Bhangra, Dance Team, JAIVE Afrovibes, hip hop, K-pop and Latin Dance.
Also, the Steinmetz Symposium Student Art Exhibition in the Crowell and West Galleries in the Feigenbaum Center for Visual Arts features some 270 works by 76 students. Mediums include digital art, drawing, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
The day wraps up with the spring concert featuring the Union College Schola Cantorum, Union College Choir and Union College and Community Orchestra from 7 to 9 p.m. in Memorial Chapel. It is led by Jin Byun, lecturer and director of music performance.
On Saturday, a concert featuring the Union College Jazz Ensemble, led by Professor Tim Olsen, takes place at 11 a.m. in Emerson Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center.
For a complete schedule, including a list of presentations, visit the Steinmetz website.
The Steinmetz Symposium is named for Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), who taught electrical engineering and applied physics at Union. A chief consulting engineer for the General Electric Company, he was widely regarded as America’s leading electrical engineer.
The symposium coincides with Prize Day, which begins at 1 p.m. Saturday in Memorial Chapel. Students are honored for achievement in academics and leadership.
Among the top awards given are the Josephine Daggett Prize to the senior for conduct and character and the Frank Bailey (1885) Prize to the senior who has rendered the greatest service to the College in any field.