MOUNT VERNON — Research on a wide range of topics including robot arm intelligence, gender development in children, fire corals of the Bahamas and ornate box turtles will be showcased at the 11th annual Cornell College Student Symposium on Saturday, April 14, in The Commons.
The symposium runs from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Admission is free to the event, which is open to the public.
One of the premier events at Cornell, the symposium originated as a way to spark intellectual conversation and growth on campus. This year there are 96 students involved in 71 presentations, as lectures of about 20 minutes apiece, as poster presentations offering visual displays of projects along with explanatory comments and as one performance.
The lectures and performance will take place at three sessions (9 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 1 p.m.) in Hedges Conference Room, Harlan Dining Room, Berlin Room, Stockholm Room and Paris Room; poster presentations will occur at two sessions (10 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 2:30 p.m.) on the Orange Carpet.
After the symposium, Cornell’s Delta of Iowa chapter of Phi Beta Kappa will hold its annual induction ceremony at 3 p.m. in Harlan Dining Room, followed by a reception. Seventeen students have been selected for membership based on distinguished performance in a broad range of liberal arts courses. Phi Beta Kappa considers members from the top 15 percent of the senior class and the top 5 percent of the junior class.
Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most widely respected academic honorary society in the United States. There are 270 Phi Beta Kappa chapters in the United States, including seven in Iowa. Cornell’s Delta of Iowa chapter was the fourth chartered in Iowa, in 1923.