On Wednesday, June 19 the Graduate Student Society (GSS) held its first Research Speed-Dating event in the GSS Lounge. The event was meant to be a forum where SFU graduate students could interact and learn about their peers’ research, making connections that might lead to future collaborations or networking opportunities.
Nineteen graduate students attended, representing a multitude of departments, from linguistics to criminology, to art education to mathematics, to biomechanical engineering and more.
As with many first-time events, everything was a bit chaotic. Students began trickling in a little before 3:30 pm and it seemed that GSS organizers were still trying to decide on a system for registering participants.
However, this informal atmosphere gave the whole event a social gathering feel. Students mingled snacking on veggie sticks and chocolate chip cookies. Some, like Meghan Jeffrey (MA, linguistics), just came to meet new people, while others like Dominic Trevisan (MA, education) came looking for research contacts.
After a half-hour of visiting, Narek Nalbandyan, GSS Professional Development Coordinator, took the floor, introducing the event and outlining its goals. “This event is for being more aware, sharing our experience, sharing our knowledge and passion so that collaboration can happen and we can learn from each other, or at least we can become friends,” Nalbandyan concluded.
And then it was time for a little research “speed-dating.” Students were told to find a partner and were given five to six minutes to discuss their research, ask each other questions, and swap stories. After six minutes, Nalbandyan shouted above the din that it was time to find a new partner. One enthusiastic student shouted in mock-despair that she still had so many more questions; she was assured that there would be time afterward to continue conversing with anyone that had been of particular interest.
These mini-discussions went on for an hour until Nalbandyan announced the final “speed-date.” He then brought everyone together for a short discussion. The whole event lasted about an hour and a half.
“Frankly, we weren’t expecting 20 people and when we saw 20 people attending and really being interested and being engaged in these conversations, that felt like success,” said Nalbandyan, after all was said and done. “That motivated us to actively continue working on this program to make it better, make it bigger and possibly host in other campuses later on.”
GSS Relations Officer, Eleonora Joensuu chimed in, saying, “One success that I think was huge was that we had a really great range from across faculties, departments and programs. I think intellectual community is something that is lacking at SFU.
For me, personally, I think it’s so exciting to think of the amount of work, that we are here in a setting where research is happening and we don’t talk to each other. Even if a research collaboration didn’t come out of last night, we can feel connected to this institution.”
GSS plans to hold a Research Speed-Dating event monthly. “Next time, maybe we’ll have more food,” laughed Joensuu.
