Formalized in and evolving since 1989, the Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program serves as a model learning environment that provides a framework for students to conduct original investigations on compelling questions of interest, collaborate with other students and on-campus or off-campus professionals such as educators, researchers and scholars, and to share their investigation results through public presentation and publication.
Abstracts for completed SIR investigations are assembled into a document that is distributed at an annual investigations showcase held on the IMSA campus. At this IMSAloquium (formerly known as Presentation Day) students share their investigations with invited guests, SIR advisors, and IMSA staff and students.
-
IMSAloquium 2025 Event Booklet
Cover designed by Aimanohi Imoukhuede, IMSA student,
Welcome to IMSAloquium, our annual, school-wide celebration of learning! This booklet contains abstracts for over 225 outstanding projects conducted by IMSA students in the 2024-25 academic year. The topics range from biomedical research to artificial intelligence, from history to the social sciences, and from business to entrepreneurship
-
IMSA Summer Symposium
Cover design by Tatum Glas
Welcome to Summer Symposium 2024! For nearly four decades, IMSA has worked to advance the human condition through educational innovation. This year, for the first time, we are proud to be hosting a Symposium to showcase the research projects that were conducted in IMSA’s experiential learning programs over the summer. These programs include Student Inquiry and Research (SIR), IN2 Business Internships, and the Student Research and Experiential Learning Opportunity (SRELO) program.
-
IMSAloquium 2024 Event Booklet
Cover design by Harish Chandar '26
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2024. This is IMSA’s 37th year of leading in educational innovation, and the 36th year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program.
-
2023 IMSAloquium
Cover design by Ashana Das '25
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2023. This is IMSA’s 36 th year of leading in educational
innovation, and the 35th year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program. -
2022 IMSAloquium
Cover design by Alex Zhang '22
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2022. This is IMSA’s 35th year of leading in educational innovation, and the 34th year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program.
-
2021 IMSAloquium
Cover design by Eunice Kim '22
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2021. This is IMSA’s 34th year of leading in educational innovation, and the 33rd year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program.
-
2020 IMSAloquium
Cover design by Oluwadamilola Alao '20
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2020. This is IMSA’s 33rd year of leading in educational innovation, and the 32nd year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program.
-
2019 IMSAloquium: Student Inquiry and Research Program and IMSA Internship Program
Cover design by Tatum Glas, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Welcome to IMSAloquium 2019! This is IMSA’s 32nd year of leading in educational innovation, the 31st year of the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program, and the first year of the newly imagined IMSA Internship Program.
-
2018 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Jean Bigger; Program design by Asheli Mann-Lofthouse, Sanza Kazadi, PhD, and M. Ross Alexander, PhD, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"This is IMSA's 31st year of leading in educational innovation and the 30th year of the Student Inquiry and Research Program (SIR)! ... These studies have all happened during the past year in a variety of laboratories, real or virtual, on and off campus. Students were asked to not only learn a great deal about complex topics, but to contribute to them in meaningful ways. The presentations you hear today reflect the various stages of their work on a myriad of projects."
-
2017 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Walker C. Weyland '17; Program design by Sara S. Goek, PhD '06, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"This is IMSA's 30th year of leading in educational innovation and the 29th year of the Student Inquiry and Research Program (SIR)! Welcome to another year of profound investigation and discovery! In these pages, you will find exciting abstracts on a variety of fantastic studies done by IMSA's great minds."
-
2016 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Walker C. Weyland '17
"Welcome to the twenty-eighth year of the Student Inquiry and Research Program (SIR)! This is a program that is as old as IMSA. The SIR program represents our unending dedication to enabling our students to learn what it is to be an innovator and to make contributions to what is known on Earth."
-
2015 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design is a compilation of figures and images from the work of past SIR students
"We want to express our gratitude for the generosity and steadfast support of all the experts and leaders who have nurtured These collaborative partnerships are the strength of our SIR program."
-
2014 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Lael Costa '14
"The ability to work with professionals is a life-changing experience for our students. Working with world-class scholars and advisors, students have contributed to advances in a variety of fields from science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to the performing arts and history."
-
2013 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Chris Reader, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"This year, we are proudly celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of IMSA’s Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program. Our first IMSAloquium, then called Presentation Day, was held in 1989 with only ten presentations; this year we are nearing two hundred."
-
2012 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Chris Reader, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"Through SIR and its partnerships, IMSA students engage in rich opportunities to pursue compelling questions of interest, conduct investigations, engage with extraordinary advisors, communicate findings, and ultimately impact society."
-
2011 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Chris Reader, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"Inquiry Without Boundaries reflects our students’ infinite possibilities to explore their unique passions, develop new interests, and collaborate with experts around the globe."
-
2010 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Irene Norton, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"IMSA students engage in investigations in nanotechnology, particle physics, law, neonatal medicine, literature, transplantation biology, water purity, the educational achievement gap, neurobiology and memory, ethics, theatre, discrete mathematics, economics, and more."
-
2009 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Irene Norton, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"SIR enables students to pursue solutions to problems that challenge our global community through partnerships with distinguished professionals at colleges and universities, research institutions, businesses, and museums.”
-
2008 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design by Jean Bigger and Irene Norton, Staff; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
"Marking its twentieth year, IMSA’s Student Inquiry and Research Program (SIR) is a powerful expression of the Academy’s mission, “to ignite and nurture creative ethical minds that advance the human condition.”
-
2007 IMSAloquium, Student Investigation Showcase
Cover design and IMSAloquium logo by Hon Lung Chu '07; IMSAloquium logo also by Stephanie Chang '07
"In conjunction with IMSA's 20th Anniversary and to better represent and capture the sophistication and quality of the students' exemplary investigations, IMSAIoquium: Student Investigation Showcase was developed as the new name for what has previously been termed "Presentation Day."
-
2006 Eighteenth Annual IMSA Presentation Day
Cover design by Meng Kang '07
"We believe that our goal of creating "decidedly-different learners" is already being met and will make a profound impact on the future of humanity."
-
2005 Seventeenth Annual IMSA Presentation Day
Cover design by Yuxi Ji '07 and Cathy Gao '07
"The Student Inquiry and Research Program fosters the development of students as highly skilled and integrative problem finders, problem solvers, and apprentice investigators, all skills required to succeed in the global workplace of the 21" Century."
-
2004 Sixteenth Annual IMSA Presentation Day
Cover photograph of Kasia Szremski '01and Lyra Haas '05 at archaeological site in Caral, Peru, taken by Jonathan Haas, PhD; Chicago Field Museum of Natural History
"Students who attend the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy do not have to wait until they graduate from college to begin to make significant contributions to science, mathematics, the humanities and the world around them."
-
2003 Fifteenth Annual IMSA Presentation Day
"Through the IMSA Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) Program, IMSA's young apprentice investigators open our eyes to what is possible in fields such as cell biology, genetics, computer science, biomedical engineering, science education, economics, bacteriology, archeology, biotechnology and immunology."
-
2002 Fourteenth Annual IMSA Presentation Day
Cover design by Mel Chua '03
"As you begin to turn the pages and learn about the extraordinary research work of IMSA's young investigators, I hope you will begin to see what is possible."
