--- title: "AICUR 2026 — Limerick | Model Diplomat" description: "AICUR 2026 - All Ireland Conference for Undergraduate Research is a professional conference in Limerick, Ireland, Mar 25, 2026." url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/conferences/professional/aicur-2026-all-ireland-conference-for-undergraduate-research-2026" --- # AICUR 2026 - All Ireland Conference for Undergraduate Research Mar 25, 2026[Limerick, Ireland](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1\&query=Limerick%2C%20Ireland)In-person [Registration open](https://undergraduateawards.com/aicur-2026/) The All Ireland Conference for Undergraduate Research (AICUR) is an academic event dedicated to showcasing the research of undergraduate students. Hosted in Limerick, Ireland, this conference provides a platform for emerging scholars to present their findings, engage with peers, and contribute to the broader academic discourse. It emphasizes the importance of undergraduate research in fostering critical thinking and intellectual development. ## Committees & topics - Topics Innovating for Impact: Undergraduate Research Shaping Tomorrow · Deep Learning-Driven Leaf Segmentation for Plant Disease Classification Using EfficientNet-B1 · 'The Standard Drag in Everyone's Head is a Drag Queen': Drag Kings in Contemporary Ireland · Modelling Dynamical Systems from Noisy Data: Comparing Methods for Mass Spring-Damper System Parameter Estimation · Queer Representation in the Media: A Diachronic Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Reclaimed Language in English Newspapers, 1993-2021 · Feasibility of Designing and Manufacturing a Circular Furniture Product Using Irish-Grown Wool · The Relationship between Acetylcholine and Cellular Respiration in Raphanus sativus: Effects on Oxidised Pyridine Nucleotides · 'Their Intellects Are Now as They Have Always Been, as Dark as Their Skins': Mental Illness Among the Enslaved in the United States ## Why it matters AICUR plays a crucial role in the academic landscape by elevating the visibility and recognition of undergraduate research. In an era where early engagement in research is increasingly vital for academic and professional trajectories, this conference offers a structured environment for students to gain invaluable experience in presenting their work. This exposure is not only beneficial for individual students but also contributes to the overall quality and innovation within higher education. For many undergraduates, AICUR represents a significant milestone, marking their first formal presentation at a scholarly gathering. Such experiences are instrumental in building confidence, refining communication skills, and understanding the peer review process, all of which are foundational for future academic pursuits or careers requiring analytical rigor. The conference's focus on undergraduate work underscores a commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers and thinkers. ## How to prepare To effectively engage with the AICUR, participants should consider several preparatory angles. For those presenting research, a thorough understanding of their methodology and findings is paramount. This includes being able to articulate the significance of their work, address potential limitations, and respond to questions from a diverse audience. Practicing presentations and refining visual aids can significantly enhance the impact of their research. Beyond presentations, attendees can maximize their experience by actively participating in discussions and networking opportunities. Understanding the broader context of undergraduate research, perhaps through lessons like "What Is Stakeholder Mapping?" or "[Understanding Motivations](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/understanding-motivations)," can provide a richer framework for appreciating the diverse projects on display. Engaging with these concepts can help participants not only understand the research presented but also identify potential collaborations or areas for their own future inquiry. Considering how different research projects might interact or influence various stakeholders, as explored in "Mapping Relationships," can also deepen engagement. ## Country perspectives Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile. [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Host nation for the conference, emphasizing the development of its undergraduate research talent.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Ireland serves as the host country for AICUR, providing the venue in Limerick for this significant academic event. Its role is central to facilitating the gathering of undergraduate researchers and fostering a national environment conducive to academic exchange and scholarly development.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) ## Topics & background The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it. 1 ### Innovating for Impact: Undergraduate Research Shaping Tomorrow Undergraduate research has expanded significantly across Irish and international higher education over the past two decades, moving from a niche activity in elite institutions to a recognised pillar of student development. Initiatives such as the Council on Undergraduate Research (founded 1978 in the United States) and the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (founded 2011) provided models that influenced the establishment of the All Ireland Conference for Undergraduate Research (AICUR), which brings together students from universities across the island of Ireland to present original work across disciplines. The drive to embed research in undergraduate curricula has been propelled by the Bologna Process, OECD reports on the knowledge economy, and national strategies such as Ireland's Impact 2030 research and innovation strategy and Northern Ireland's 10X Economic Vision. These frameworks emphasise the role of student-led inquiry in addressing societal challenges, from climate change to digital transformation. Critics, however, have noted persistent gaps in access, funding, and equity of opportunity across institutions and disciplines. Today, undergraduate research is positioned as both a pedagogical tool and a policy lever for innovation. The plenary theme situates student work within wider questions about how universities translate inquiry into social, economic, and cultural impact, and how early-career researchers can shape responses to contemporary global challenges. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Host state; funds undergraduate research through the HEA, SFI, and Impact 2030 strategy.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Partner jurisdiction via Northern Ireland's universities and UKRI-funded undergraduate schemes.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Origin of the Council on Undergraduate Research model that shaped global UR practice.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) 2 ### Deep Learning-Driven Leaf Segmentation for Plant Disease Classification Using EfficientNet-B1 Plant diseases cause an estimated 20-40% of global crop losses annually according to the FAO, threatening food security particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Traditional disease diagnosis relies on expert visual inspection, which is slow, subjective, and unavailable to many smallholder farmers. Since the 2010s, advances in convolutional neural networks—catalysed by datasets such as PlantVillage (released by Penn State and EPFL researchers in 2015)—have enabled automated image-based classification of crop pathologies with high accuracy. EfficientNet, introduced by Google researchers in 2019, refined the trade-off between model depth, width, and resolution, producing variants (B0-B7) that achieve state-of-the-art accuracy with reduced computational cost. EfficientNet-B1 has become a popular choice for agricultural applications because it balances accuracy with deployability on mobile and edge devices. Leaf segmentation—isolating leaf regions from complex backgrounds—is a critical preprocessing step that significantly improves downstream classification performance. The research sits at the intersection of precision agriculture, computer vision, and sustainable development. Open questions include generalisation across cultivars and environments, robustness to lighting and occlusion, and integration with farmer-facing mobile tools, particularly in regions where extension services are limited. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Site of the research and a node in EU precision-agriculture and agri-tech innovation.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Home of Google's EfficientNet research and the PlantVillage dataset infrastructure.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Leading publisher of deep-learning plant pathology research and large-scale agricultural AI deployment.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Major adopter of smartphone-based crop diagnosis tools serving smallholder farmers.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) 3 ### 'The Standard Drag in Everyone's Head is a Drag Queen': Drag Kings in Contemporary Ireland Drag as a performance tradition has long centred drag queens in popular consciousness, a tendency reinforced globally by RuPaul's Drag Race since 2009. Drag kings—performers, often but not exclusively assigned female at birth, who perform exaggerated or subversive masculinities—have a documented lineage stretching back to music-hall male impersonators such as Vesta Tilley in the late 19th century, through the lesbian bar cultures of the 1980s-90s United States chronicled by scholars like Judith/Jack Halberstam in 'Female Masculinity' (1998). Despite this history, drag kings have received markedly less media, commercial, and academic attention than queens. In Ireland, the legalisation of homosexuality in 1993, the introduction of civil partnership in 2010, the 2015 marriage equality referendum, and the 2015 Gender Recognition Act transformed the legal and cultural landscape for LGBTQ+ communities. Dublin's drag scene, popularised by figures such as Panti Bliss, has flourished, but king and non-binary performance has remained comparatively underground, organised around collectives, cabarets, and venues like The George and Street 66. Contemporary research on Irish drag kings explores how performers negotiate visibility, gender politics, and community in a scene shaped by both global queer culture and specifically Irish histories of Catholic moral regulation, emigration, and post-Celtic Tiger urban change. The topic engages debates on gender performativity, queer cultural production, and the political economy of nightlife. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Primary site of study, with an evolving legal framework and an active LGBTQ+ performance scene.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Shared cultural and historical context, including the music-hall tradition and cross-border touring circuit.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Source of much foundational drag-king scholarship and dominant global drag media.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) 4 ### Modelling Dynamical Systems from Noisy Data: Comparing Methods for Mass Spring-Damper System Parameter Estimation The mass-spring-damper is a canonical second-order dynamical system used to model phenomena ranging from vehicle suspensions and seismic isolation to biomechanics and MEMS sensors. Estimating its parameters—mass, stiffness, and damping coefficient—from measured data has been a foundational problem in system identification since the mid-20th century, with classical approaches including least-squares regression, Kalman filtering (developed by Rudolf Kálmán in 1960), and frequency-domain methods. In recent years, data-driven methods such as Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy), introduced by Brunton, Proctor, and Kutz in 2016, alongside neural ODE approaches and Bayesian inference techniques, have broadened the toolkit available to researchers. Each method handles measurement noise differently, with trade-offs between interpretability, computational cost, and robustness. Benchmarking these approaches on well-understood systems remains essential before deployment in safety-critical engineering contexts. The research contributes to broader discussions in scientific machine learning and digital-twin engineering, where accurate identification of physical parameters from imperfect sensor data underpins predictive maintenance, control design, and model-based decision-making across industry. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Research site, with growing strength in scientific machine learning via SFI-funded centres such as I-Form and Confirm.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Originator of SINDy and a leading hub for data-driven dynamical systems research.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Leader in industrial digital-twin engineering and applied system identification.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Strong contributor to Bayesian system identification and uncertainty quantification research.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) 5 ### Queer Representation in the Media: A Diachronic Corpus Linguistic Analysis of Reclaimed Language in English Newspapers, 1993-2021 Language about LGBTQ+ people in the English-language press has shifted dramatically over the past three decades. In 1993, homosexuality was newly decriminalised in Ireland, Section 28 remained in force in Britain, and the AIDS crisis still heavily inflected coverage. Terms such as 'queer', 'dyke', and others—historically used as slurs—were being actively reclaimed by activists and academics, notably through Queer Nation (founded 1990) and the emergence of queer theory through scholars such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler. Between 1993 and 2021, the legal and social landscape transformed: civil partnership and marriage equality were enacted across Ireland, the United Kingdom, and most of the English-speaking world; gender recognition laws were introduced; and media style guides—such as those from the Associated Press, the Guardian, and the Irish Times—were repeatedly revised. Corpus linguistics, drawing on tools like AntConc and Sketch Engine and on resources such as the News on the Web (NOW) corpus, allows researchers to track these shifts quantitatively, measuring frequency, collocation, and semantic prosody over time. The study contributes to a growing body of work at the intersection of sociolinguistics, media studies, and queer studies, examining how mainstream press language both reflects and shapes public attitudes toward LGBTQ+ communities, and how reclamation operates differently across national press cultures. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Jurisdiction whose press underwent rapid change from decriminalisation (1993) to marriage equality (2015).](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Home of major English-language newspapers and the Section 28 legacy that shaped early coverage.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Origin of much reclaimed queer vocabulary and influential style-guide standards.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [Australia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) [Significant English-language press corpus contributor with a distinct LGBTQ+ rights timeline.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) 6 ### Feasibility of Designing and Manufacturing a Circular Furniture Product Using Irish-Grown Wool Ireland produces several thousand tonnes of raw wool annually, but the collapse of global wool prices since the 1990s—accelerated by the rise of synthetic fibres and the dominance of fine Merino wool from Australia and New Zealand—has rendered much Irish wool economically unviable. Farmers frequently report that shearing costs exceed the price paid for the fleece, leading to wool being burned, buried, or stockpiled. A 2022 Irish government-commissioned report on the potential of Irish-grown wool highlighted opportunities in insulation, textiles, and design. Circular economy principles, formalised in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (2020) and Ireland's Whole-of-Government Circular Economy Strategy (2022-2023), call for products designed for durability, repair, disassembly, and biodegradability. Wool—naturally renewable, biodegradable, fire-resistant, and acoustically absorbent—is well suited to such design briefs, particularly in furniture upholstery, acoustic panelling, and cushioning. However, supply-chain fragmentation, limited domestic scouring capacity (Ireland's last major scour closed years ago, with most wool now processed in the UK), and design constraints remain barriers. This research explores whether undergraduate-led design and manufacturing can demonstrate viable pathways for Irish wool within a circular furniture product, linking craft, materials science, and sustainable design policy. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Producer of the raw material and policy driver of circular economy and rural enterprise strategies.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Primary location of wool scouring and processing infrastructure serving Irish producers.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [New Zealand](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/new-zealand) [Global benchmark for high-value wool branding and supply-chain coordination.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/new-zealand) - [Netherlands](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [European leader in circular design methodology and biomaterial furniture innovation.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) 7 ### The Relationship between Acetylcholine and Cellular Respiration in Raphanus sativus: Effects on Oxidised Pyridine Nucleotides Acetylcholine, identified by Henry Dale and Otto Loewi in the early 20th century (work recognised by the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine), is best known as the principal neurotransmitter at vertebrate neuromuscular junctions. However, since the 1970s, researchers have documented acetylcholine and the associated cholinergic machinery in a wide range of non-neuronal contexts, including bacteria, fungi, and plants. This 'non-neuronal cholinergic system' has been implicated in cell signalling, growth, and stress response across the plant kingdom. Cellular respiration in plants relies on pyridine nucleotide coenzymes—NAD(H) and NADP(H)—whose oxidation states reflect mitochondrial activity and redox balance. Monitoring the ratio of oxidised to reduced pyridines provides a sensitive indicator of metabolic flux. Raphanus sativus (the common radish) is a standard model in plant physiology owing to its rapid germination, well-characterised genome, and ease of laboratory cultivation. Investigating whether exogenous acetylcholine modulates respiratory activity in radish tissue connects to broader questions in plant signalling, evolution of neurotransmitter-like molecules, and potential agricultural applications such as stress tolerance and growth modulation. The research contributes to an emerging field that blurs traditional boundaries between plant and animal physiology. Key players - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Research site contributing to EU-funded plant physiology and agri-science programmes.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Leading centre for non-neuronal cholinergic system research since Wessler and Kirkpatrick's foundational work.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Japan](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) [Major contributor to plant signalling and Raphanus sativus genomic research.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Significant publisher in plant mitochondrial biology and redox signalling.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) 8 ### 'Their Intellects Are Now as They Have Always Been, as Dark as Their Skins': Mental Illness Among the Enslaved in the United States The history of mental illness among enslaved people in the United States is inseparable from the history of scientific racism. The 1840 US Census, later shown to be statistically fraudulent, was used by figures such as John C. Calhoun to argue that enslaved Black Americans suffered lower rates of insanity than free Black populations—evidence, proponents claimed, that slavery was protective. Physician Samuel Cartwright in 1851 coined the pseudo-diagnoses 'drapetomania' (the supposed mental illness causing enslaved people to flee) and 'dysaesthesia aethiopica', framing resistance to bondage as pathology. These constructs operated alongside the very real psychological trauma inflicted by chattel slavery: family separation, sexual violence, physical brutality, and the denial of personhood. Asylums in the antebellum South, such as the Eastern Lunatic Asylum in Williamsburg, Virginia, segregated patients by race, and enslaved people experiencing mental distress were often returned to plantations, sold, or institutionalised under coercive conditions. Historians including Wendy Gonaver, Martin Summers, and Christopher Willoughby have, since the 2010s, reconstructed these archives to recover both the lived experiences of enslaved people and the ideological work that psychiatry performed in service of slavery. The research engages with a broader historiographical movement to centre enslaved subjectivity, to interrogate the racial foundations of modern psychiatry, and to connect the antebellum past with ongoing disparities in mental health care and diagnosis affecting Black Americans today. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Site of the historical events and contemporary debates over reparative scholarship and psychiatric racism.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Imperial context shaping transatlantic medical discourse and the slave trade preceding US independence.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Locus of the present research and a comparative site for histories of asylum medicine and colonial psychiatry.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) ## Resources News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AICUR 2026 - All Ireland Conference for Undergraduate Research. Recent reporting to ground your prep [Delimitation Based on 2011 Census](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/delimitation-based-on-2011-census-indias-political-shift) [India's 33% Women’s Quota in Lok Sabha 2029](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/india-proposes-33-womens-quota-in-expanded-lok-sabha-by-2029) [Pakistan-Linked Terror Network in Karnataka](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/pakistan-linked-terror-network-in-karnataka) [Aarish Chhabra's Role in Indian Media Shift](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/aarish-chhabras-impact-on-indias-evolving-media-landscape) Lessons Bite-sized lessons to build the basics [What Is Stakeholder Mapping?](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/what-is-stakeholder-mapping) [Hidden Stakeholders](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/hidden-stakeholders) [Dynamic Analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/dynamic-analysis) [The Power-Interest Grid](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/power-interest-grid) Courses Guided courses that go deeper on the topic [Media & Press Relations](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/media-press) [Advanced Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/advanced-negotiation) [Multilateral Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/multilateral-negotiation) [Policy Brief Writing](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/policy-brief) The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance [Ireland](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/ireland) [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Australia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/australia) [New Zealand](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/new-zealand) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/new-zealand) [Netherlands](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/netherlands) [Japan](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/japan) ## Frequently asked questions - - Free account Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free. 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