The 13th annual Fall Frontiers poster exhibition brought the Student Union Ballroom to life on Thursday, Oct. 23, as undergraduate researchers from across the university presented their innovative projects to the University of Connecticut community. The two-hour event, held from 5 to 7 p.m., invited students, faculty and staff to engage in meaningful conversations about research, discovery and creativity.
Part of UConn’s Month of Discovery, Fall Frontiers celebrated the curiosity and dedication of undergraduate researchers who spent months — often years — developing their projects. The Month of Discovery is a campus-wide initiative that connects students to opportunities in enrichment, research, innovation and creativity. The event provided a platform for students to showcase their work, discuss their findings and inspire others to pursue their own academic explorations.
Among this year’s presenters was third-semester political science student Alyssa Boggis, who shared her research on measuring the territorial control of non-state actors, alongside Toriana Grooms, a fifth-semester political science and English major. The research was done under Dr. Michael Rubin of the political science department.
“Our research topic was about measuring the territorial control of non-state actors,” Boggis explained. “Basically, we were analyzing articles and extracting data from them to figure out what territory state and rebel groups were controlling. Our goal was to extract enough of this data and then put our findings into an AI so that the AI could analyze all these articles on its own, and eventually we could create proper maps of what groups were controlling what.”
Boggis’s work began as part of the SHARE research grant program, where she collaborated with Rubin over the summer. She has since continued the project beyond the grant period, expanding her involvement and continuing to refine the data analysis process.
“I am still working with him now on the same project outside of SHARE,” she said.
Reflecting on her experience at Fall Frontiers, Boggis said the opportunity to present her work was one of the most rewarding experiences she has had at UConn.
“Presenting at Fall Frontiers was one of my favorite things I’ve done at UConn,” she said. “I love research, I have worked on multiple research projects over my time at UConn, and the ability to present my research to other people and have others learn about topics that I find very interesting was so much fun. I would recommend that everyone tries to present at Fall Frontiers.”
Boggis also emphasized how valuable it was to engage with students and faculty who were curious about her research.
“It felt amazing to share my work with both students and faculty, and I loved all the discussions I had with people who were curious about our research,” she said. “I think events like Fall Frontiers are so important because I believe everybody should pursue research over their academic career because of the skills it develops and the information we gain from it. Hopefully people are inspired by Fall Frontiers to commit to their own research projects.”
According to the Office of Undergraduate Research’s website, “the Frontiers in Undergraduate Research exhibition provides opportunities for UConn’s talented undergraduate students to share their research and creative projects with the university community.” This opportunity arrives twice a year, at the Fall Frontiers exhibit as well as the spring exhibition.