Submit a Proposal

All UWindsor students are eligible to submit proposals for the conference. This includes full-time, part-time, undergraduate, and graduate students from all faculties and programs. 

Students can present on a broad variety of topics from any academic discipline. There will be an award for students who relate their work to some economic opportunity for a community or for themselves. For example, presenters can share a brief plan for how their work could impact their personal economic outcomes and/or the outcomes of their research project. This could include how the research relates to career aspirations, cost savings in a community, or cost benefits to a community. 

This conference celebrates UWindsor students’ research, scholarship, original creative activity, and student initiatives. It is an expression of our university's goals and aspirations to develop deeper, broader connections between learning and the UWindsor community.

Many forms of original work are welcomed, such as:

• Research
• Creative Art
• Performance
• Invention or sales pitch
• Interactive educational tools
• student initiatives and more...!

Submissions could stem from individuals, volunteering, or course-related work, as long as the work belongs to the participants, or they have permission to show and share the work from the owners of the content. 

Students can present their work using the following mediums:

• Eight-minute oral presentation 
• Poster presentation
• Podcasts
• Other initiatives should be proposed by email to Dr. Brunet (tbrunet@uwindsor.ca) before February 2, 2026.

The UWill Discover conference is an exciting opportunity to share your work among our UWindsor community. The conference is organized for students by students with assistance from faculty mentors and advisors on campus. UWill Discover is an experiential learning opportunity where students present, submit proposals, and get peer feedback. In short, if you've come this far, you should go for it. Hop on the UWill Discover Brightspace page and review the possibilities under the assignments tab. 

All participants must submit an abstract with a maximum of 200 words and a proposal description that explains your submission and includes in-text citations (500 words). Your list of references is submitted in a separate field. An abstract is typically a short paragraph included at the beginning of a completed research paper. Many of your works are still incomplete. We understand that this may change between now and the conference. The abstract allows reviewers and readers to understand your research question, your findings, how you conducted the research, and the potential impacts of your research findings in a few words.

The proposal section is a more thorough description of your project. A strong proposal tells a story about your creative work or research. It signals to reviewers your content intentions and it will signal to your audience members what they will be hearing when they come to your presentation. Including keywords that can be used to signal other researchers in the field (or beyond) provides opportunities for discussion within a body of knowledge or research community and it makes your work easier to find in online environments such as scholar.uwindsor.ca. Finally, the proposal section provides an opportunity to share any special activities you may have planned during the session.

Please see below for helpful resources on writing abstracts and conference proposals:

• American Psychological Association worksheets
• Abstract Essentials (UWindsor's Writing Support Desk)
• University of Toronto Writing Advice - Abstract
• The Writing Centre - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

When you submit a conference proposal, you should demonstrate that you have reviewed a knowledge framework. Share with reviewers your level of knowledge about the literature and demonstrate how you will contribute to that body of knowledge.
Since UWill Discover is a multi-disciplinary conference, please use the citation style guide that suits your discipline. You can find citation style guide information and resources on the Leddy Library website. 

Use the following for a naming format for submitted documents: "lastname_firstname_theFirstThreeWordsofYourPresentation".

Abstracts are limited to 200 words, and the proposal description is limited to 500 words, including your references. Since it is unlikely that you can fit in all of our references, you should use in-text citations and list the primary references for your presentation in your proposal description. 

Yes, you can present incomplete research and projects. UWill Discover is an opportunity to think critically about the progress of your project and get feedback about your next steps. If you have an exciting research project in the making, you should share it with UWill Discover!

Reach out to your networks!

• Contact your professor(s) during their office hours. It is okay to bring a friend.
• Meet with your advisor if you are a research assistant.
• Connect with the Outstanding Scholars Coordinator (tbrunet@uwindsor.ca)
• Your friends with previous UWill Discover experience.
• Check-in with UWindsor's Writing Support Desk.
• Contact the UWill Discover Ambassador team (uwilldiscover@uwindsor.ca)

When presenting work, be sure you have the permission and authority to share the content at the conference. Check in with your advisors about copyright, non-disclosure agreements, and patents.