Three-Minute Pitches Showcased by Graduate SLAM Participants Highlighting Their Power
UC San Diego's Grad SLAM competition returned for its third year on April 14, 2016, challenging graduate students from various academic disciplines to explain their complex research in accessible language for a general audience.
Ten students, including two from an unspecified organisation, participated in the event, which was hosted by the UC San Diego Graduate Division and judged by a small panel of academically diverse faculty and staff.
One of the standout presentations was by Lorenzo Rossini of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who earned third place and $750 with his presentation "A Peek inside the Heart: How the Blood Flows." Rossini's talk focused on the mechanics of blood flow in the human heart, a topic that is usually reserved for specialists.
Another notable presentation was by Scripps graduate student Lynn Waterhouse, who presented her stock assessment research on the endangered Nassau grouper (a project with REEF and the Cayman Islands Department of Environment). Waterhouse's presentation was titled "Quantitative Fisheries Science, or How to Count Fish."
Waterhouse participated in Grad SLAM for the second time and believes the skills gained will help her in future teaching. She found the event valuable for stepping back and considering the big picture of her research.
Catherine Nickels, a fifth-year PhD candidate in biological oceanography, discussed her research on krill and whale movement in the Nine Mile Bank. Nickels suggested that whales are following krill into a populous fishing region off the San Diego coast. Nickels believes that the Grad SLAM event is good practice for her future career in science communications.
The lively event featured topics ranging from wearable biofuel cells to stimulation of blind eyes to restore vision. Mary Glen Fredrick of Theatre and Dance received second place and $1,000 with her presentation "Making a Monster: Turning Statistics into a Story." Tiffany Taylor of Biomedical Sciences won first place and $2,500 with her presentation "Using 'Central Intelligence' to Fight and Conquer Brain Tumors."
The Center for Student Involvement and Qualcomm Institute helped finalists prepare for the competition with workshops and one-on-one coaching.
For those interested in the specific research topics presented by graduate students at the 2016 Grad SLAM competition, it might be necessary to contact UC San Diego directly or explore archived university event records or newsletters that specifically cover that year’s competition.
The Grad SLAM competition at UC San Diego, dedicated to education-and-self-development and personal-growth through learning, showcased diverse research topics in its third year. Lynn Waterhouse, from Scripps, demonstrated the importance of personal-growth and learning in her presentation "Quantitative Fisheries Science, or How to Count Fish," as it aided her in future teaching and provided a broader perspective on her research.
