Proceedings from the 2022 Indicium Conference

Abstract

Indicium is an annual research mentorship program and competition geared towards introducing interested students to the process of independent research. Through this mentorship program, undergraduate students are grouped with mentors or principal investigators (e.g., PhDs, professors, graduate students, medical students) who actively guide and support student teams to conduct research. With the mentors’ guidance, Indicium participants are fully prepared for the final Indicium Research Conference. The program also includes workshops focusing on various aspects of project development as well as networking opportunities within the greater scientific community. This year, Indicium expanded across five universities across Canada and was carried out by the STEM Fellowship branches at McMaster University, University of British Columbia, York University, University of Toronto St. George, and University of Toronto Mississauga. Every branch held a university-level conference where participating teams submitted to have their abstracts to be published in the proceedings below. Eight teams selected from these branches moved forward to participate in the National Indicium research Conference held on July 9, 2022. Winning research projects from this final competition are invited to submit their work to the STEM Fellowship Journal, pending that it passes peer review. We are pleased to be showcasing the conference proceedings from the five participating Canadian universities. It was our pleasure working alongside an incredible group of mentors, mentees, judging panel, and executive team on this initiative. Indicium would not be possible without the drive, engagement, and active participation of all those who were involved to help advance knowledge, mentorship, and future opportunity.