Advancing to the Semifinals from Round Two are Aubrie Adams of Communication and Philip Deslippe of Religious Studies. Credit: Patricia Marroquin
Monday, April 7, 3 to 4 p.m., Elings Hall, Room 1605
Here is what you missed at the second round of the Grad Slam.
Ryan’s Picks
The Grad Slam Round Two judges were, from left: Ignacio Gallardo, Tania Israel, and Satie Airame. Credit: Patricia MarroquinBest use of images: Aubrie Adams
Best discussion of pizza: Philip Deslippe
Best use of music: Barney Johnson
Best reference to ancient Egyptians in unfortunate situations: Mehran Hoonejani
Best title: Kevin Kipp
Best pre-presentation dance: Caitlin Rathe
Best use of poetry: Saiph Savage
Judges’ Picks
Aubrey Adams (advances to Semifinal round)
Philip Deslippe (advances to Semi-final round)
Mehran Hoonejani
Barney Johnson
Aubrie Adams' talk focused on emoticons. Credit: Patricia Marroquin
Presentation Summaries
Student Perceptions of Teacher Emoticon Usage, Aubrie Adams, Department of Communication
Aubrie explains that written text can come across to readers as cold, impersonal, and uncaring. She looks into how teachers can show they care in text-based communication. She argues that emoticons allow teachers to improve perceptions of caring, although they carry with them the risk of influencing perceptions of confidence negatively. Aubrie performed an experiment that showed subjects three different messages, each with a varying number of emoticons (0, 3, and 12). These messages were then used to have subjects assess teacher caring levels and teacher competence. Teachers who used minimal emoticons (3) did not have an impact on perceptions of competence, but raised the perceived level. Because interactions increasingly are text-based, we need to know how to show emotions with our texts.
How Pizza Explains Yoga, Philip Deslippe, Religious Studies
Barney Johnson, Music Composition, spoke on "The Fear of Art, and How to Eliminate It." Credit: Patricia MarroquinYoga is a big deal these days. This occurred through a process of re-enculturation. The same process happened through pizza. Philip has explored the history of early American Yoga. Yoga is the site of constant interactions across multiple cultures in multiple times. Our modern perceptions of Yoga misunderstand the historical development of the practice.
The Fear of Art, and How to Eliminate It, Barney Johnson, Music Composition
Barney’s lifelong dream is to create a world where art is the center. He presents a series of multi-modal presentations of art that create an experience of art rather than a showing of art. His attention to detail extends all the way to the pictures on the wall and the wine being served.
“Cell”ection Using Light and Flow: Detect It Before It Is Cancer!, Mehran Hoonejani, Mechanical Engineering
Kevin Kipp delivered a "Kidney Punch" in his three-minute talk. Credit: Patricia MarroquinAfter informing his audience that cancer has been an issue in human society for thousands of years, up to and including current mortality statistics on cancer, Mehran explains a new and exciting approach to identifying circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the bloodstream. CTCs can be indicative of tumor size, and a good measure of the efficacy of drugs in use, but unfortunately they are very hard to find. Mehran proposes a method of tagging cells with biotags in order to identify CTCs.
Kidney Punch: The Final Hit, Kevin Kipp, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
Kevin Kipp’s awesomely titled presentation starts off a very interesting explanation of the issues and possible steps toward more effective treatments for Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). He introduced the three hypotheses for PKD (mutant allele from parents, mutilation of second allele, and injury) and recommended caloric restriction as an alternative to the debilitating cancer-fighting drugs that are normally used to fight the disease. Caloric restriction has no negative side effects and can have positive benefits (such as anti-aging) even for people who don’t suffer from PKD.
Let Them Eat Ketchup, Caitlin Rathe, History
Saiph Savage of Computer Science presented her talk in the form of a poem. Credit: Patricia MarroquinCaitlin studies the history of public policy, and in particular food policy. She explores the relationship between public food programs like food stamps and charitable food venues such as pantries. She provided an overview of the history of the food stamp program from its inception to Ronald Reagan’s Task Force on Food Assistance in 1983 and 1984. Through this history, Caitlin identified a rise of food stamp and food bank usage, and is attempting to explain the reasons for that occurrence.
Understanding Online Audiences, Saiph Savage, Computer Science
Saiph began by scheming her audience, introducing a poem and claiming that “I thought it was a poetry slam.” However, this ruse was directed at showing the audience how people perceived their audiences when speaking or writing. Saiph then used that kernel of thought to expand on issues of understanding online audiences, who are constructed and responded to within the semi-private partition of the Internet. Saiph wants to know that, if people have all of this data and can collaborate online to do things, how are they doing it? Why? For what purpose?
Grad Slam Round Two competitors answer questions while the judges deliberated. Credit: Patricia Marroquin