Students presented their research and service projects to faculty, staff, fellow students, and alumni at Burnham Pavilion. (Image credit: Eric Van Danen)

More than 150 students presented their research and service projects to faculty, staff, fellow students, and alumni at Burnham Pavilion last week at the annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Public Service event.

“SURPS is an unparalleled opportunity for students to share the results of their original scholarship, and for the rest of the Stanford community to celebrate and learn from their experiences,” said Brian Thomas, senior director of undergraduate research, whose team organizes the gathering.

Each year, the SURPS event offers students across disciplines the opportunity to present their current and recent academic projects, showcasing the variety of topics, approaches, and interests at Stanford. And this year, the event saw a significant jump in participants, up from about 100 student researchers last year.

Michael Peters, a senior majoring in human biology, presented his public service research on partnering with community health workers in Latinx communities in Santa Clara County. He said the opportunity to do a public service project has been one of the best parts of his Stanford experience.

“I have a deep connection with the Latino community so being able to help out in that community is something that is very important to me,” Peters said. “But also I have interest in global and community and public health so I love the fact that this was a people-oriented project.”

As part of her undergraduate research project, sophomore Piper Fleming and her team tested a viral sunscreen on sand dollar embryos in an effort to create reef-safe sunscreen. She said it may be the answer to simultaneously protecting our skin from UV rays as well as keeping harmful chemicals out of both our bodies and our oceans.

“We found that the sunscreen did not affect the sand dollar embryos whereas significant abnormalities were seen in the chemical sunscreen trial,” Fleming said.

Thomas noted that the annual symposium serves as a tremendous resource for undergraduates to learn how fellow students developed their intellectual interests, current projects, and faculty or community connections.

“Along with other exciting opportunities such as overseas study, undergraduate research and public service are pillars of experiential learning, and represent some of the most rewarding activities students can undertake while at Stanford,” he said.