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1. Undergraduate Perceptions on Attending Interdisciplinary Conferences

   Ritz, A (October 2024, Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges)

   Attending computer science conferences can give students insight into the research process and how academic work is disseminated. This study examines undergraduate student perceptions about attending an interdisciplinary computational biology conference. The study was conducted over four academic years with a mix of participants who attended a conference as part of a course and participants who received an undergraduate travel award. Results from 70 students enrolled in nearly 30 different institutions indicate that attending conferences helped them learn about different careers, gave them a sense of what computational biology research entails, and provided insight into giving an effective oral presentation. We found that students who received a travel award felt more comfortable at the conferences than students who attended as part of a course. Based on these findings, we provide guidance about developing programs for undergraduate conference attendance. 

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2. Improving on legacy conferences by moving online

   https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.57892  

   Achakulvisut, Titipat; Ruangrong, Tulakan; Bilgin, Isil; Van Den Bossche, Sofie; Wyble, Brad; Goodman, Dan FM; Kording, Konrad P (April 2020, eLife)

   Scientific conferences and meetings have an important role in research, but they also suffer from a number of disadvantages: in particular, they can have a massive carbon footprint, they are time-consuming, and the high costs involved in attending can exclude many potential participants. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the cancellation of many conferences, forcing the scientific community to explore online alternatives. Here, we report on our experiences of organizing an online neuroscience conference, neuromatch, that attracted some 3000 participants and featured two days of talks, debates, panel discussions, and one-on-one meetings facilitated by a matching algorithm. By offering most of the benefits of traditional conferences, several clear advantages, and with fewer of the downsides, we feel that online conferences have the potential to replace many legacy conferences. 

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3. IEEEVR2020: Exploring the First Steps Toward Standalone Virtual Conferences

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.648575  

   Ahn, Sun Joo; Levy, Laura; Eden, Allison; Won, Andrea Stevenson; MacIntyre, Blair; Johnsen, Kyle (April 2021, Frontiers in Virtual Reality)

   null (Ed.)

   The global COVID-19 pandemic forced all large in-person events to pivot to virtual or online platforms. IEEEVR2020 coincided with rising concerns and restrictions on travel and large gatherings, becoming one of the first academic conferences to rapidly adapt its programming to a completely virtual format. The global pandemic provided an impetus to re-examine the possibility of holding social interactions in virtual worlds. This article aims to: (1) revisit the issues of virtual conferences noted in earlier studies, focusing specifically on academic conferences, (2) introduce new survey and observational data from the recent IEEEVR2020 conference, and (3) present insights and future directions for virtual conferences during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from a field observation during the conference and a post-conference survey point to complex relationships among users, media platforms selected, and social constraints during the virtual conference. 

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4. Perspectives of interpersonal interventions at conferences to promote broader inclusion

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1154793  

   Smith-Keiling, Beverly L.; Keiling, Andreas (May 2023, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences)
5. Benefits of permanent adoption of virtual conferences for conservation science

   https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13884  

   Kuehne, Lauren M.; Rolls, Robert J.; Brandis, Kate J.; Chen, Kai; Fraley, Kevin M.; Frost, Lindsey K.; Ho, Susie S.; Kunisch, Erin H.; Langhans, Simone D.; LeRoy, Carri J.; et al (January 2022, Conservation Biology)