2014 Grad Slam "April Awesomeness" Bracket: Who Will Advance?
While basketball has “March Madness,” the UCSB Graduate Division has “April Awesomeness,” (also known as the Graduate Student Showcase). For two weeks of April, graduate students from a variety of disciplines show off their incredible research, expertise, projects, and performances. One of the capstone events of the Graduate Student Showcase is the Grad Slam.
Last week, 64 students gave a combined total of 192 minutes of presentations (give or take a few minutes for students who went under or over the 3-minute time limit) during the 10 preliminary Grad Slam rounds. Their talks covered a broad range of topics, including: understanding the brain, developing alternative energy sources, documenting and saving dying languages, understanding culture and identity, improving teaching and learning, exploring online communication, curing diseases, designing new technologies to provide better healthcare, examining the power of music on socialization, and using reading as a tool for emotional growth. To read more about each of the 10 Grad Slam preliminary rounds, visit: http://gradpost.ucsb.edu/grad-slam-recaps-2014
This week, the Grad Slam continues with two Semifinal Rounds:
Semifinal Round 1: Tuesday, April 15, 4 - 5 p.m., Student Resource Building Multipurpose Room
Semifinal Round 2: Wednesday, April 16, 11 a.m. - noon, ESB 1001
Here are the list of semifinalists and their presentation titles:
Semifinal Round 1
- Philip Deslippe, Religious Studies, "How Pizza Explains Yoga"
- Deborah Barany, Dynamical Neuroscience, "The Brain in Action"
- Samantha Davis, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, "Why are Coral Reefs Disappearing?"
- Logan Fiorella, Psychological & Brain Sciences, "Is Teaching Really the Best Way to Learn?"
- Haddy Kreie, Theater & Dance, "Celebrating Mourning: Memorializations of Vodun and Slavery in West Africa"
- Damien Kudela, Chemistry, "A Safe and Effective Nanotherapeutic to Control the Coagulation Cascade During Trauma"
- Leah Kuritzky, Materials, "The Promise of Laser Lighting"
- David Jacobson, Physics, "Genetic Regulation: What the Human Genome Project Didn’t Tell Us"
- Michelle Oyewole, Geography, "Too Much of a Good Thing? Effect of Compost Application on Greenhouse Gas Emissions"
- Dibella Wdzenczny, Linguistics, "Capturing Tongues in the Tundra"
Semifinal Round 2:
- James G. Allen, Marine Science, "Measuring Cells from Space: Remote Sensing of Phytoplankton Size Distribution"
- Aubrie Adams, Communication, "Student Perceptions of Teacher :) Emoticon Usage"
- Matt Cieslak, Psychological and Brain Sciences, "Searching the Brain for Missing Parts"
- Don Daniels, Linguistics, "Reconstructing Proto-Sogeram"
- Nate Emery, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, "I Have the Foggiest Idea"
- Audrey Harkness, Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, "Having 'The Talk': The Importance of Parent-Child Communication about Sexual Orientation in the Development of Youth Sexual Orientation Attitudes and Behaviors"
- Dayton Horvath, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, "Don’t Stop the Solar Fuels Party"
- Alexander Pucher, Computer Science, "Solon: Democratizing the Cloud"
- Carly Thomsen, Feminist Studies, "Re-thinking Gay Rights Strategies: Perspectives from LGBTQ Women in the Rural Midwest"
- Mira Rai Waits, History of Art and Architecture, "Mapping the Finger: The Colonial History of Biometrics"
- Michael Zakrewsky, Chemical Engineering, "New Arsenal of Materials for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacterial Infections"
The top five presenters from each round will advance to the Grad Slam Final Round on Friday, April 18, at 3 p.m. in Corwin Pavilion and compete for a $2,500 grand prize. Stay tuned for an updated Grad Slam "April Awesomeness" bracket and more information about the Grad Slam Final Round.