Dozens Share Work at Creative Collaborations Showcase

There was a role reversal in the Learning Commons this week. University of San Diego faculty members watched as audience members as undergraduate students took center stage, presenting on their research.

That work ran the gamut at the 2026 installment of Creative Collaborations, an event showcasing undergraduate research. Students talked about topics ranging from protecting homes from wildfires to the history of the Vietnam War to Alzheimer's disease.

“With Creative Collaborations, the collaboration part is twofold. We’re talking about collaborations across disciplines, integrating disciplines, and also collaboration between faculty and students. And that’s huge,” said Cawa Tran, PhD, director of undergraduate research. “We have a saying that ‘If you don’t publish it, it doesn’t exist.’ But going beyond publications, there are different ways to communicate research, and this is one of them.”

Nearly 50 undergrads spoke over the course of two days – a testament to the growing opportunities for undergraduate research at USD. Each student presented in the PechaKucha format, which limits talks to two minutes, forcing students to summarize their findings and share them in a conversational way.

Chloe Howel is graduating later this month, and presented on the psychology behind comebacks in the NBA, a project she worked on with Nadav Goldschmied, PhD. In collaboration with her mentor, Howel not only got to do psychology research, she learned how to package and present it.

“I really wanted to get into research because I want to go to graduate school, and I think it’s important to expand your field and get a better understanding of how to do that,” she said.

James Antony, PhD, provost and vice president for academic affairs spoke to students to kick off the event, and explained what a profound impact doing research had on him.

“Research changed everything for me. It was the moment I stopped being a consumer of knowledge and started becoming a creator of knowledge,” he said. “Real innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. It happens when a student stands side-by-side with a faculty member, thinking about big questions and imagining ways of studying those questions.”

Creative Collaborations is the current name for a long-standing tradition at USD. The event – an annual showcase of undergraduate research – has been put on for 36 years now. It started with Marie Simovich, PhD, who was tasked with finding research opportunities for USD students locally.

Simovich, a biology professor at the time, had connections with various organizations around San Diego, and knew they needed help in the field. She identified students suited for different projects, and sent them where they could provide a helping hand and get hands-on experience.

It was the start of undergraduate research at USD.

What began as a grassroots effort to get undergrads out of the classroom and into the field became a pillar of education at USD. Today, experiential learning is a priority, and, as was on display this week, research opportunities are abundant.

Professors looked on proudly as their students stood on their own to present work they themselves did. Work to advance their field. Work that’s often reserved for graduate students, but at USD can be done by first-years.

“It has grown and has expanded,” Dr. Simovich told the students this week. “It’s amazing what has come of this program today.”