The UA Grad Slam, an opportunity for graduate students to present their research in three minutes or less for the chance to win $3,000, began preliminary rounds on Monday in the Student Union Memorial Center Kiva Room.
Grad Slam will happen in stages over the course of three weeks from March 23 to April 6, said David Bradshaw, program coordinator for Graduate College Administration.
“Participants in Grad Slam will be rated by a panel of three judges, each coming from different backgrounds,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw said that the judges will award points based on three general areas: presentation, significance and audience. He said these categories are consistent with other Grad Slam events across the country.
“The top two presenters from each of the 10 preliminary rounds will move to the semifinals, taking place on March 31 and April 1, and the top three presenters from each round of the semifinals will move to the final round on April 6,” Bradshaw said. “The top three presenters on April 6 will receive the cash awards of $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 donated by the UA Office [for] Research and Discovery.”
Merica McNeil, a graduate student and Grad Slam participant, said she came across something called the three-minute thesis this summer while she was researching for her dissertation. She said that she suggested the idea of bringing something like this to the UA to her friend who works for the Graduate and Professional Student Council.
Bradshaw said the Grad Slam is a collaboration between the Graduate College and the GPSC. He also added that the event is supported by the UA Office for Research and Discovery and the university libraries.
“Fun events that showcase the work of graduate students, events like Grad Slam, serve as an important professional development opportunity for students to enhance their public speaking skills,” Bradshaw said.
Kimberly Espy, senior vice president for research at the UA, said the goal of the Office for Research and Discovery is to enable, support and enhance research capacity on the campus.
“This competition [is] really a fun way for students to communicate the excitement of their ideas,” Espy said. “We’re really pleased to connect with the graduate school to enable this kind of incentive for graduate students to present their work in this format, and hopefully receive some funds to enable them to even more outstanding work.”
Evan Giomi, a graduate student and Grad Slam participant, said he heard about the event through an email he received from the Graduate College encouraging students to participate.
“I thought they were really neat, and it was kind of a cool concept,” Giomi said. “I will be defending my thesis during my oral defense in a few weeks, so I figured this would sort of be good practice. If I can condense it down to three minutes, I can do it on the big scale pretty easily.”
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