From left: Robert DeAbreu (winner), Colúm Connolly, VP Academic and External Affairs, Graduate Student Society and Donnard MacKenzie (winner).
Outstanding work from graduate students is being recognized by a new award from UBC’s digital repository and the UBC Vancouver Graduate Student Society (GSS).
cIRcle, launched by UBC Library in 2008, is an open access digital repository for published and unpublished material created by the UBC community and its partners.
The GSS cIRcle Open Scholar Award was introduced this past summer. Its aims are to feature UBC as a leader in the dissemination of exemplary non-thesis graduate coursework, and create an incentive for graduate students to submit material to cIRcle other than theses and dissertations.
The incentive is a lottery-style award worth $500, along with the knowledge that the winning work is made publicly available and administered on a long-term basis by UBC Library. Open Scholar Awards are given annually – two in April and two in October.
“The Open Scholar Award is an excellent representation of both UBC and its graduate students’ dedication to showcasing our unique intellectual output,” says Christopher Roach, GSS President. “It gives graduate students an opportunity to showcase their knowledge outside of their normal networks while encouraging the spirit of collaboration and interdisciplinarity.”
The first round of winners was announced last October. The latest winners, announced in April, include Donnard MacKenzie and Robert DeAbreu.
“I am grateful for the efforts of those responsible for cIRcle because I see it as a positive alternative that facilitates sharing of research and work,” says DeAbreu, a graduate student in UBC’s Mathematics Education program whose winning paper was written for an education leadership course. “cIRcle catalyzes the sharing and building of ideas, motivating students to improve their work and to give back to the research community that provides so much for them.”
Read more from UBC Library’s Community Report (2013).