During the evaluation process, the OUR Selection Committee identified and addressed the need for another award category: Staff Picks. In some way, projects so designated fell outside the strictly-defined parameters shown above, but were understood to be particularly innovative, relevant, compelling, or creative.

Ultimately, 8 graduate projects and 14 undergraduate projects were designated Projects of Merit, and 19 undergraduate projects were designated Staff Picks for the SOARS 2020 Virtual Conference.

Afterword from the OUR Director, Dr. Karen Cousins

The term “Project of Merit” turns out to be a misnomer. There are many meritorious projects in this Virtual Conference – interesting, important, and ingenious projects. Each of you should be proud of your work and your accomplishments. I know I am!

But in the same way that judges walk through a poster session and select winners based only upon the poster and brief interaction with the presenter rather than the richness of the entire research project, so the selection committees made awards based upon a distilled representation of the full project. We did not evaluate the incredible posters or the thoughtful and beautifully-prepared sound recordings and transcripts. With great difficulty and care, we selected Projects of Merit and Staff Picks based upon what we could glean from the abstracts.