By Melanie Wu
UC Santa Barbara’s annual undergraduate competition for the best short research presentation took place last week, spotlighting students who could explain their projects in three slides and under three minutes.
The winner was Sriram Ramamurthy, a third-year biology-major for his work on genetic differentiation among tree species in their evolution. Marina Stoilova, also a third-year biology-major was runner up for her research into gene expression in disparate cell types, and their use of light. And Kiana Sabugo, fourth-year psychology and brain sciences major came in third for presenting on how meditation affects the belief in free will.
The Slam is open to all undergraduate students, and the word is spreading among those who do research in humanities and the arts.
Hosted entirely online during the previous two pandemic years, the undergraduate Grand Slam took place in person this year with virtual video submissions for the qualifying round only. After a careful review of all the submissions, a panel of judges then selected the top 15 finalists, who advanced to the final in-person round. The top three earned cash prizes, $1500 for the winner, $750 and $250 for the runners up.
Anita Stahl, director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities at UCSB, spoke at the Research Slam event and praised it for encouraging students to get involved with research of their own.
The Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Slam followed February’s Graduate Slam, where graduate students showed their research presentations in under three minutes. Last week’s event extended the Slam to undergraduates to give younger students the chance to present their research as well.
Anita Stahl, director of undergraduate research activities at UCSB, sees it as a great benefit for all undergraduate students, allowing them to begin considering research and presenting before deciding on graduate school.
“The Slam gets undergraduate students excited about research, to have the chance to present it, so that they know what they do is valued,” Stahl said. “But also, it has an effect on other students, seeing what their other colleagues are doing and realizing ‘I can do that too’, and ‘I can do research’ even as an undergraduate.”
Minyi Jiang, one of the 15 finalists, presented her research on Islamophobia and the narratives of Iranian Americans in the United States. The Middle East Studies major found the Slam to be a great opportunity for her to share her Islamic research with her peers. She studied the history of Iranian immigrants when they arrived in the United States, analyzing how Iranian immigrants experience Islamophobia, as compared to non-immigrants.
Minyi Jiang, a UCSB undergraduate student in Middle East Studies, presented her research on Islamophobia and the narratives of Iranian Americans in the U.S. at this year’s Undergraduate Research Slam.
“The Slam definitely helped me build stronger friendships because I was able to invite my friends to come over and watch me present my research. My friends and I have similar interests in Islamic studies and we all benefited from listening to others' presentations and research,” Jiang said.
Jiang said the live portion of the competition posed difficulties with the three-minute time constraint and criteria that all research must be presented in three slides. All the presenters had a chance to further explain their research during a URCA conference panel which took place the following day.
“I did a conference panel the next day and I talked about my research from the very beginning and was able to cover everything I actually wanted to cover,” Jiang said. “That presentation took me around 15-20 minutes, so going back to the three-minute presentation was actually very challenging because you need to fill the audience in with the most important information.”
“I covered what is Islamophobia, what is the history, and why I am talking about this, and I think this took a lot of time from the three-minute presentation. Also, in just three slides you can’t really present everything about research.”
The turnout of the event went very well, with about 50 participants, a high number considering it was the first time the event was back in-person after two years, said organizer Stahl.
“The event went well. It’s such a cliché but I am disappointed that more people couldn’t win because there’s a few who I thought did so well,” Stahl said. “They put so much work into this and I’d just love to be able to reward and acknowledge that. But, at least they all got to showcase their research to an audience.”
Melanie Wu is a third year Statistics and Data Science major. She covered this event for her Writing Program course Digital Journalism.