Plan to attend the
2023 Conference on Understanding Interventions
that Broaden Participation in Science Careers

August 25-26, 2023

Salt Lake City Marriott City Center

The 2023 Understanding Interventions conference, scheduled for August 25-26th, is in partnership with the annual NSF Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Program meeting. All conference related activities will be held at the Marriott Salt Lake City Center, 220 State Street, Salt Lake City Utah.

The conference is scheduled for August 25-26th, with the 24th and 27th as travel days. Registration is $595 and includes conference meals, parking, and receptions. There is a $100 discount of postdocs and students. The last date for online registration is Friday August 18th. The onsite registration rate is $695. The group rate for hotel accommodations is available for $159 night, and reservations MUST be made for available rooms by August 4, 2023. The reservation deadline has been extended to August 11, 2023.

The CREST Program Meeting is open to the CREST Centers, CREST HBCU-RISE, CREST PRF / PRP community. The meeting will provide information about NSF funding opportunities and will allow the CREST community to interact with the UI community to form new collaborations to broaden participation in STEM.

About the Conference

This conference was established to facilitate dissemination and exchange of hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in science and engineering research careers. The conference is designed to create a dialogue among behavioral/social science and education researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields who participate in intervention programs. Graduate students in these fields are strongly encouraged to attend. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

What to Expect

• A limited number of plenary sessions addressing broad and large-scale contextual issues.
• Symposia and workshops organized by tracks of interest.
• Workshops lasting from 1.5 to 3 hours and providing hands-on instructional interactive sessions, either in one session or split into two over the course of the conference.
• Symposia feature 2-3 person panel presentations. These symposia may feature one speaker for an hour or several presenters of research on a particular topic/segment of the education pathway.
• Deeper Dives are 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. A maximum of three are presented during each session. Then each speaker moves to a roundtable discussion with interested audience members for another 40+ minutes of intense interaction.
• Colloquia Session (20 or 40 minutes). Colloquia are sessions that provide discourse on relevant issues in broadening participation in STEM. Colloquia are not research dependent and allow content and conversations that provide another avenue for contributions to the community of STEM interventions that broaden participation. Colloquia can be single presentations, panel discussions, or affinity group discourse.

Virtual Conference

UI held its first Virtual conference in December of 2020 in response to Covid-19 restrictions that forced the cancellation of the original March 2020 in person meeting. Brought out of necessity, the virtual conference introduced a format that provided pre conference availability of symposia, Deeper Dives and Poster presentations. The 14th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference will continue with similar design as we have adopted aspects of the virtual format in hopes of reaching a virtual audience as well as those who attend the conferences in-person through our hybrid design.

The in-person UI conference will feature workshops, plenaries, symposia, deeper dives, posters and colloquia—a new format that allows discourse on relevant issues in broadening participation in STEM. The virtual UI conference will feature live streaming of plenaries, prerecorded symposia with available chat discussion, and virtual poster presentations. All abstracts will be accepted for in-person presentation.

Register online by Friday August 18th!

Registration fee includes admission to all conference sessions and networking events, a conference program guide, meals, parking, and receptions.

Online Registration:
$495 Students and Post Docs
$595 Faculty, Researchers, Administrators

In-Person Registration:
$695

NSF/NIH Virtual Attendee Registration
$295

Virtual Registration:
$195 All Virtual Registrants

Registration Policy: Cancellations before July 15, 2023 will be refunded with a $100 processing fee. Cancellations after July 15, 2022 will be non-refundable. The NSF/NIH virtual attendee rate is available only to NSF and NIH employees using their work email address.

Proposal Submission Deadline: July 15, 2023 July 24, 8am EST

Notification of Acceptance: July 22, 2023 July 31, 2023

Here are links to download the UI Conference Abstract Submission Guidelines and Abstract Template.

Proposals are invited for presentation on research projects and best practices highlighting pathways to STEM careers. Abstracts can be submitted to present in the following formats: workshop, symposium, deeper dive, or poster. You may select only one oral presentation format. However, those submitting abstracts for oral presentation my also select to present a poster. Members of the UI Advisory Committee review all submissions. Revisions may be requested prior to acceptance.

Workshops. Abstracts should provide attendees with models, methods, and hands-on tools that can be adapted to other campuses, programs, and populations.

Two types of workshops are available: a. Hands-on interactive sessions (1.5 or 3 hours), and b. Focused Seminar (1.5 hours) on a single topic.

Symposia. Concurrent symposia feature 20-minute presentations, each followed by a 10-minute open question and answer period. Abstracts for symposia presentation must include rationale, design, research results and/or program outcomes pertinent to broadening participation in STEM education and careers.

Complete symposium proposals may be submitted consisting of no more than three (3) presentation abstracts centered on a specific objective, e.g., institutional alliance or area of inquiry. Complete Symposium proposals must include a parent abstract that provides the session overview to be presented by a moderator, and three presentation abstracts (made by one individual even if co-authored), for a maximum of four presentations. Time limitations for each presentation are the same as described above.

Deeper Dives. Concurrent Deeper Dive sessions feature 15-minute presentations, after which members of the audience adjourn to separate (and concurrent) 30-minute roundtable discussions of their choice, each led by a speaker (and his/her coauthors). Abstracts submitted for Deeper Dive presentations should include (a) the focus of study, (b) methodology and measures used, and (c) illustrative questions/issues to be discussed in the open-ended roundtable discussion.

Posters. Poster presentations must fit on a 4’x4’ poster board. Abstracts for poster presentation should highlight the following components:

1. Focus of the intervention—what is studied and why
2. Study population—describe it and any comparison or control group
3. Contextual factors—what was measured and how what limits generalization
4. Outcomes of the intervention—what was found in what time frame
5. Relevance to the UI community—how does the study advance theory and/or practice as described in the literature; what is adaptable and possible next steps

Colloquia Session (20 or 40 minutes). Colloquia are sessions that provide discourse on relevant issues in broadening participation in STEM. Colloquia are not research dependent and allow content and conversations that provide another avenue for contributions to the community of STEM interventions that broaden participation. Colloquia can be single presentations, panel discussions, or affinity group discourse. Accepted proposals will be strongly considered for conference registration grants.

Length of Abstracts. Abstract submissions consistent with the guidelines above should be in Arial 11-point font, with 1500-4000 characters including spaces. Abstracts should include 2-5 literature references in APA format.

Accepted abstracts are strongly considered for conference grants.

The conference committee reserves the right to move abstracts between presentation categories,
e.g., Symposium to Deeper Dive, Symposium to Poster.

Salt Lake City Marriott City Center
220 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
Marriott.com

Conference Room Rate: $159/night

Deadline: Friday, August 4, 2023
Deadline Extended: August 11, 2023

Group ID: “UNDERSTANDING ATTEND”

To make your room reservations by phone, call Toll Free Reservations at 1-888-236-2427 and ask for the Understanding Interventions rate. Any requests for special room arrangements must be made at the time of the reservation. A credit/debit card is needed to hold your reservation; you will not be charged at the time of booking unless stated. If you have booked a rate that requires a deposit or prepayment, the deposit or prepayment will be charged to this credit/debit card.