Spring to Success at Science Slam II
Published: 19 June 2014
The Graduate School held its second Science Slam event on 9th May at Cottiers Theatre. The second event was also a ‘sell-out’ and was attended by a mix of students, academics and the public.
The Graduate School held its second Science Slam event on 9th May at Cottiers Theatre. The second event was also a ‘sell-out’ and was attended by a mix of students, academics and the public.
Eight students presented their research in a way of their choosing (there are no limitations apart from the time they are allowed and no fires) and the talks included tissue-engineering origami, the materials of the future, the brain as a prediction machine and how springs can save the world. Oh, and also revealed to the audience that dinosaurs did not have a space programme (thanks Chen!) but if they had well, then, they probably would still exist. The scope and ambition of the presentations was fantastic and it is always a delight to be involved in this event. Many people helped to make it a success, not least Meike Ramon, a postdoctoral Psychology researchers and Becky Douglas from Physics and Astronomy (a previous national Science Slam winner). In the end, Physics and Astronomy continued their dominance of the event with the top prize going to Richard Middlemiss for the aforementioned world-saving springs work.
Fiona McGruer was awarded the second prize with an accomplished and confident presentation. Richard says of the event: “The Science Slam is a great chance to communicate your research to a friendly public audience without having to worry about all the technical details. Instead of having to answer awkward questions from your supervisors, people applaud and cheer instead. The Science Slam is both fun and beneficial and I’m very glad that the grad school organises it: I learned a lot, met loads of great people, and winning it paid for my summer holiday!”. We will ignore the fact that he didn’t spend his winnings on more/bigger springs.
First published: 19 June 2014