Having graduated our first batch of BSc students in the year 2018, the science faculty at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, reflected on what we had done well and what more we could do for our students. There were, of course, more questions ahead of us than answers; however, one sentiment was shared by most of us: our students needed more interactions with peers to communicate their work. They needed an avenue to come out of the bubble of their institution and mingle with other undergraduate students across the country. 

In our undergraduate programmes, we are always trying to leverage opportunities for creativity. We do this largely by creating spaces for students to participate in processes involving observation, experimentation and documentation. We view research as a strong pedagogical tool and hence envisaged to build a platform for students and faculty across the country to share their approaches, experiments, failures, and successes in science. This is how the Science Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) was born. 

What does SURC offer?

SURC provides undergraduate students a rare platform to communicate their work to an audience from varied backgrounds. They also gain exposure to 

1. a wide range of ingenious Do-It-Yourself solutions people have adopted (which are perhaps more common at this level of training, given the limitation in resources) for experiments.
2. the significance of and access to local issues such as lake pollution, traffic, urbanisation, etc. 
3. how scientific conferences are initiated, conducted and sustained. 

We hope it will encourage undergraduate teachers and future undergraduate students to actively participate in research that helps deepen disciplinary knowledge, cultivate scientific thinking, and most importantly address local problems. A wonderful side effect of such efforts, is, of course, the fun and excitement of discovery. 

Our booklet of SURC 2024 abstracts can be accessed here: