CoRC Networking Event Connects U of T Students and Researchers

by Georgia Laidlaw

Last week, the Cognitive Science Research Community (CoRC) held its first “speed dating” networking event open to the entire CoRC community, which includes undergraduate Cognitive Science students in addition to graduates, postdocs, and faculty members in related fields.

Attendees rotated tables in five rounds of “speed dating” with guided prompts to start discussions. The goal of the event was to connect current program students like Annaa O., who studies the philosophy of cognitive science and reasoning, to existing research in the field that they may not know about and potentially open new research opportunities amongst colleagues.

“Because I focus on philosophy, I also wanted to know how language plays a role in processing and how it all connects with our cognition,” Annaa said. “At my [last] table, there were two people that focused on linguistics, which was really interesting. They didn't really know much about the philosophy side, and I didn't know much about the linguistic side.”

Similarly, senior academics like Brett Reynolds, a faculty member at Humber College and adjunct professor of linguistics at U of T, also had the opportunity to connect with colleagues in related fields whose research might be directed towards different goals.

“Humber is a college. It's not a university. It is very integrated with doing industry-centered research and solving problems for businesses, but we don't have a linguistics department, and so I don't have other linguists to talk to, or psychologists or cognitive scientists,” he said.

When asked if she would attend another similar event, Anna was enthusiastic. “I'm actually really enjoying this event,” she said, “I love how you rotate tables, so you meet different people and learn about what they studied. Most of them are in research or are profs or PhD students. As an undergrad student, I don't really have many opportunities to connect with them unless I go into a specific field of research, so the event is a good opportunity to expose myself to different things, interests and perspectives.”

CoRC will have more events in the new year. Follow their website and join their mailing list for more details.