The Edinburgh University Young Scientific Researchers Association (EUYSRA) launched in January 2012 with the objective of introducing the concept of innovative and original student led research through engaging peer activities and sharing of knowledge across all scientific fields. EUYSRA was quickly recognised by not only the scientific student body as a unique and rewarding experience, but was also highly praised by numerous members of academic staff as well as the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) which awarded EUYSRA the “Best New Society of the Year” Award for the academic year 2011/2012. EUYSRA shows an incredible ability of growth and community impact as demonstrated by our explosive membership growth from just 60 in 2011/2012 to over 300 in 2012/2013. The structure of the society is outlined below.

The Weekly Main Meeting:

We host weekly main meetings open to anyone, with an average attendance of over 150 members and non-members alike (having been covered by multiple medias, i.e. EUSci, The Journal, The Student and YouTube). These meetings consist of a presentation by an academic guest lecturer who discusses, in layman terms, the current breakthroughs and scientific discoveries taking place in their respective fields (always followed by the after meeting social for informal discussions). Amongst the 26 different academic pioneers who have presented at EUYSRA since our launch, some notable ones attracting more than 300 spectators each are:

  • Professor Harald Haas (Inventor of Li-Fi)
  • Sir Professor Ian Wilmut (Cloner of Dolly the Sheep)
  • Professor Peter Higgs (Definer of the Higgs Boson)
  • This Event was called “An Audience with Peter Higgs” and attracted 550 people.
  • Professor Stephen Salter (Inventor of the Edinburgh/Salter Duck)

We strongly believe in student participation so to conclude every main meeting we host ‘Principia Scientifica’ (a short debate) where two students publically debate a scientific topic provided to them, with the aim of winning over their opponent through votes from the spectators. This provides an opportunity for students to improve their debating skills and boost their confidence at speaking to larger audiences. This format of meetings and socials provides an excellent atmosphere for broader learning and peer and academic interactions.

The Weekly Department Meeting:

The primary objective of the society is to encourage our members to pursue their own small scale research projects, allowing them a chance to experience research outside their degrees (opportunities which are significantly rare for undergraduates). Due to the highly diverse academic background of our members, there exist 7 departments (i.e. Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, IT, Medicine, Physics, and Psychology), where a member has the option of joining which ever and just as many of the departments as they please. These departments host independent weekly meetings, where the members engage in brainstorming to develop novel research projects (an average department meeting attendance is between 20-30 people). The aim of these meetings is therefore to gear a group of people (a research team) to produce a research proposal, presented to the research panel (including senior members of the society and academic advisors) who then consider if a project is feasible financially and practically (research proposals are formally written documents, followed by a presentation to the panel, and are carried out biannually).

The Research:

The limitations of our projects do not lie in our members imagination, but in our limited financial budget (entirely comprised of membership fees, summing at £400 in 2011/2012 and just over £2500 in 2012/2013). This teaches our members the value of choosing resources carefully and adopting the mentality of “buy once, use many times”. Our teams have gained access to multiple university labs and have been given research advice by academic administrators across nearly all scientific schools. Subsequently, we have been able to stretch our budget to accommodate over twenty different research projects, which inevitably will lead to our first annual Poster Competition in March where the top 3 projects will be published as articles in a special feature of EUSci.

Due to the notoriety of EUYSRA, academics notice the dedication of our members have offered over forty of them internships over the summer at the university to work at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs.

EUYSRA Community:

We recently launched an initiative called “EUYSRA Community” which helps set up small research clubs in local Edinburgh schools. This is organized by EUYSRA “Ambassadors” who commute to the schools to coordinate and guide their projects, allowing our members the chance to really develop confidence and communication skills. This initiative builds upon of ethos of providing students of all ages the ability to express their innovative ideas and go outside the life of linear and curriculum orientated textbooks and learning to the exam. We recently hosted a ceilidh to help raise £200 to go towards providing resources to the clubs and helping the students.

Further EUYSRA Activities:

As a society we firmly believe in the importance of research, which is why we in November also held a Charity Ceilidh “Beat the Cancer, Become the Dancer” (attended by roughly 150) where we raised £600 pounds for Breast and Prostate cancer research for Cancer Research UK. Following the donation, we propositioned Cancer Research UK (Edinburgh branch) to jointly host the next cancer charity ceilidh making the fund raising an Annual Event, to which Cancer Research UK agreed.

EUYSRA also operates a company relations team, which is working tirelessly with the University Careers Service to organize an additional day at the Edinburgh University Careers Fair 2013/2014, which exclusively features companies relevant to Science, IT and Engineering students (as these firms largely being absent from the current careers fair).

Conclusion:

We believe that we fulfil all requirements for being the best society, as demonstrated by our explosive growth and multiple levels of memberships and communal participation and impact. We have shown effective management of highly limited resources yet produce exceptional results and contribute significantly to the student experience, for members and non-members alike. EUYSRA demonstrates the qualities of an outstanding society, as you do not simply discover yourself at EUYSRA, you create yourself at EUYSRA!