Conference wunderkind gave everything to annual event for students by students

If at first you succeed, do, do again.

Over the past three years, Bianca Mammarella’s clocked more than 500 hours as the volunteer chair of Synthesis: The Integrated Science Student Symposium.

The end-of-year symposium isn’t a one-day affair. It spans seven days because every first to fourth-year student’s invited to present their projects and research and network with peers, profs, alumni and sponsors.  For first-year students, the symposium offers a preview of what they can do, contribute and achieve over their next three years in the program. For everyone else, the conference is a way to take stock and celebrate their progress and development.

Bianca was elected to chair the symposium in 2022, 2023 and 2024.  The conference wunderkind’s pulled off this feat while taking a full course load, co-founding two student groups, offering peer support for students experiencing disability and working part-time as both a pharmacy assistant and a research assistant in the fields of resuscitation and electrophysiology.

What has Bianca meant to the conference? She’s been the conference for the past three years, professor Sarah Symons said after the closing ceremonies.  Sarah was among the faculty and staff team who created Symposium in 2012. “Bianca’s put everything into Synthesis.  She’s an incredible motivator and organizer. Total success and doing something that benefits the entire student community has always been her goal. That’s what she aims for. I honestly don’t know how she manages all that she achieves.”

This year’s symposium was a record-setter, with more than 150 presenters, 30 peer reviewers and 35 volunteer committee members. It’s worth noting the organizers don’t start pulling together the conference until the start of the winter term. Bianca says Sarah, associate professor Chad Harvey and instructional assistant Devon Jones were once again a huge help this year. “They supported and challenged me to learn and grow.”

The conference also featured research talks by professors at McMaster and from institutions across Ontario plus personal branding, career planning and LinkedIn workshops run by RBC staff. Canon Medical and TIMKEN also sponsored the event.

Bianca was in her first year when she presented at the 2021 online conference. She was elected chair of the planning committee for Synthesis 2022.

There was no playbook for running a post-pandemic in-person conference. That proved to be a blessing in disguise: it gave Bianca and her co-chairs the freedom to take the conference and make it their own. They introduced an annual theme (resurgence, evolve and strive), recruited a multidisciplinary roster of speakers and leaned into Instagram to promote and cover the event. While faculty and staff in the School of Interdisciplinary Science stepped in to offer guidance and mentorship in 2022, they were hands-off for the next two conferences.

Bianca won’t be chairing a fourth conference. The final day of Synthesis was also her last day as a Mac undergrad – she managed to keep it together while publicly thanking the committee co-chairs and members.

She’ll graduate this spring with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Integrated Science with an interdisciplinary minor in community engagement and a concurrent certificate in leadership, equity and social change. Bianca will be a graduate student this September at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy. She’s also one of the finalists for a McCall MacBain Scholarship, Canada’s largest leadership-based scholarships for master’s and professional studies.

The conference is in very good hands, says Bianca. All three co-chairs – Elaina Piliouras, Melissa Cappelletto and Rachel Hemming – plan to return in 2025.

Sarah agrees. The conference runs on a model of mentorship and apprenticeship, with students starting on committees and then being elected into senior leadership roles with increased responsibilities.

As for the outgoing chair, Sarah predicts more of the same academic, extracurricular and leadership excellence at McGill. “I can’t wait to see what Bianca will achieve next. We wish her all the best.”