Can graduate students come up with a concise presentation on what can be years’ worth of research efforts?
An 80,000-word thesis would take nine hours to present. The approximately 12 graduate students competing Thursday, Feb. 21, have to do it in three minutes.
“We see this as a way to make graduate students and the tremendous research they do on campus more visible and accessible,” explains Joe Albert Garcia, interim director of graduate studies, which is hosting the Grad Slam. “It should be a fast-moving contest, considering the time limit and that they can only show one slide from their work.”
The idea of an annual contest in which graduate students present their research is not new, noted Garcia. The Western Association of Graduate Schools is holding its third annual regional competition March 6 in Tucson, Arizona, with collegiate competitors from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah and New Mexico. Cal State Fullerton and Cal State San Marcos will both be represented.
The campus Grad Slam kicks off at noon in Becker Amphitheater, on the southeast side of the Titan Student Union, with the contestants condensing their research endeavors into a form that nonexperts can easily digest and which captures the audience attention and imagination within the three-minute time limit, explains Garcia, one of the judges they will face. Other judges are Emily Bonney, interim dean of the Pollak Library, and Elizabeth Boretz, assistant vice president for student success and director of the Academic Advisement Center.
For more information, contact the Office of Graduate Studies at 657-278-2618 or email gradstudiesrecept@fullerton.edu.