The event invited undergraduate and graduate students to showcase the results and progress of their academic work through posters, oral presentations and technology demonstrations.
The expo, sponsored by the College of Graduate Studies and Research, filled the Chesapeake Rooms and several conference rooms on the third floor of the University Union.
"When we first started out [six years ago], it was mainly the hard sciences, especially biology. Now we have all kinds of arts and social sciences here, too," Lawrence Shirley, associate dean for the College of Graduate Studies and Research, said.
Each college was represented in the posters and presentations. The electronic media and film department even sponsored a film screening. For many students, like senior psychology and mass communication major Mary Bernhard, the event was an opportunity to present a culmination of hard work.
Bernhard began research on "Feelings and Perceptions of Communities Held By Different Age Groups" her sophomore year.
"It actually took years and years to put together this poster," Bernhard said. "Not the poster itself, of course, but the information took years to compile."
Bernhard studied how older adults perceive their connections in communities. She said she enjoys research more than class work.
"I get to see how research is actually applied, rather than just having someone tell me," she said.
Subjects included Internet gambling, effects of obesity education programs, purchasing power in developing and developed countries and 3D computer modeling.
Colleen McIntosh, a junior physics major, displayed her research results to find volcanic activity on Triton, Neptune's largest moon. She said she wanted to further expand on her knowledge of her current field of study: astrophysics.
"I went to my professor and told him I'd do anything," she recalled. "I wanted to do research... to gain experience."
For McIntosh, Towson's expo was a cakewalk. In January she presented her research, titled "A Search For Hemispheric Asymmetry on Triton," at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego.
Shirley said the expo helps prepare students for academic conferences.
"This is the way that they'd present at a conference," he said. "So it gives them experience with that. And the research itself -- that's the best experience of all."
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