Photo by Deb Gau A crowd of SMSU students and faculty gathered around Moshood Agboola Ojora-Williams as he spoke about the results of a biology study he conducted. A total of 128 SMSU students presented research projects at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference.

MARSHALL — Hands-on learning is a big part of students’ experience at Southwest Minnesota State University — and this week, they had the results to share.

A total of 128 university students gave presentations at SMSU’s 18th annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Wednesday.

“It’s a really great opportunity for students to dive deep into something they’re really interested in,” said SMSU student Margeaux Belanger. Belanger was sharing a musical analysis of a piece she was performing at a recital that afternoon.

Topics students researched ranged from music theory and performance, like Belanger’s project, to health and biology, history and computer science.

“It’s a day to really highlight what students are doing,” said Alyssa Anderson, conference coordinator and associate professor of biology at SMSU. Much of the research being presented Wednesday grew out of work students were doing for their classes or as part of senior capstone projects, she said.

Presenting at the conference not only puts a spotlight on students’ achievements, but it also helps students prepare for future academic and professional work, Anderson said.

“It’s connecting theory with practice,” said Mostafa Hegazy, conference coordinator and associate professor of exercise science at SMSU.

Throughout the day, students gave presentations in person and on Zoom, and also held “poster presentations” where they could share the results of their research with audience members. Students and faculty browsed rows of posters set up in the university’s conference center.

Many of the research projects on display grew out of students’ own interests and studies. Computer science major Jonah Nielsen had a poster display on “Taskmaster,” a note-taking and scheduling app he programmed.

“It’s more of a personal project,” Nielsen said. He said he had the idea for the app over the summer, to help keep track of things like tasks and deadlines. “It’s cool to be able to make something from start to finish, and then share it,” he said of participating in the research conference.

Ashton Ayres said one of his research projects at the conference looked at local government issues. Ayres interviewed public officials in Minnesota communities to learn more about the factors that have caused several smaller cities to close their police departments.

Ayres said two communities where he had lived closed their police departments within the past two years. Negative media coverage of law enforcement, and the COVID pandemic, have both had an impact on public-sector jobs in recent years, he said.

“They both hit at the exact same time,” he said.

Ayres said the project got him to look at political science with a different scope.

“This kind of drew me to look more at my local area,” he said.

Conference keynote speaker Michael Beedle encouraged students to take opportunities to grow in their work. Beedle graduated from SMSU in 1990 with a double major in biology and chemistry, and now works with the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago.

“It is my impression that we don’t always explore our own limits. Many of us put boundaries or limits on ourselves unnecessarily,” Beedle said. “I’m here to encourage you as students to take more chances, take advice and encouragement, and act on opportunities.”