Grad Slam Videos

Watch past Grad Slam presentations and news stories to get inspired, learn about innovative and impactful work, and develop your own public speaking style.

Grad Slam: Research as Story Documentary

The following videos showcase the six finalists of Grad Slam 2025. All videos were created by the University of Arizona Health Sciences BioCommunications office, and are presented in order of appearance on February 5, 2025.

Mudith Weerabaddanage, Doctoral Candidate, Geosciences, "Reading Corals: Unraveling the Mysteries of Ocean History," 3rd Place
Elizabeth Brown, Clinical Research, "Psychiatric Service Dogs for Veterans with Military Sexual Trauma"

Beihua Guo, Art, "Designated Ground Zeroes: Documenting Cold War Nuclear Targets with Uranium Prints," 2nd Place

Mourad Abdennebi, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, "Multisensory Vocabulary Learning: Shaping the Future of Second Language Acquisition," 1st Place
Eka Oktavia Kurniati, Civil Engineering, "Reusing Copper Tailings for Sustainable Concrete Materials"
Hosain Heshmati, Educational Psychology, "The Effect of AI-generated  Summaries on Learning"

 

Finalist Videos

Videos are in the presentation order used on April 11, 2024.

Mary Ahern, Nutritional Sciences, "Puzzle Pieces of Precision Nutrition: The Science of Personalizing Your Diet" (2nd Place Award Winner)

 

Mateo Pomilia, Native American Linguistics and Languages, "A'ingae (Amazon) Language Vitality for Survivance"

 

Taylor Simmons, Environmental Health Sciences, "Southern Arizona Healthy Stomach Project"

 

Sankha Subhra Mahanti, Geosciences, "Earthquake Monitoring with Artificial Intelligence" (1st Place Award Winner)

 

Kara Miller, Pharmacology and Toxicology, "Are We Ovary-acting to Chemical Exposures?"

 

Nathalia Vega Santiago, Planetary Sciences, "Unlocking Extremoverse: Behind the Scenes of a Pokemon-inspired Game" (3rd Place Award Winner)

 

Full Event Recording

Finalist Videos

Videos are in the presentation order used on March 30, 2023

 

Collin Gillespie, Natural Resource Management, "Investigating the Water Use Patterns of Riparian Mesquite"

 

Grace Heffernon, Biomedical Engineering, "Shining Light on Genetic Cardiomyopathy"

First Place Winner for Best Recorded Video Presentation Award

 

Kevin Hurtado, Pharmacology and Toxicology, "Is a World Without Acute Kidney Injury Attainable?"

Third Place Grand Prize Winner

 

Enrique Olivares-Pelayo, Geography, "No Way Out: Embedded Geographies of the Carceral State"

 

Abigail Schwarz, Neuroscience, "Cannabis Terpenes Enhance Opioid Based Pain Therapy"

First Place Grand Prize Winner

 
Gabby Wen, Applied Intercultural Arts Research, "Creative Aging for Older Adults Living With Dementia"

Second Place Grand Prize Winner

 

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Finalist Videos

Videos are in the presentation order used on April 15, 2022

Berte Reyes, Rhetoric, Composition & the Teaching of English, "The Smart Ways to Play at Hate"

 

Sahana Srivatsha, Neuroscience, "Neural Communication in Aging and Memory"

Second Place Grand Prize Winner and Third Place Winner for Best Recorded Video Presentation Award

 

Kiana Anderson, English Literature, "Ceremonial Storytelling: Recentering and applying indigenous protocols within academic research"

First Place Grand Prize Winner

 

 

Grace Heffernon, Biomedical Engineering, "Shining Light on Heart Disease"

 

Lorenza Sharpe, Entrepreneurship, "How I Met My Pet: Connecting adoptable pets to online seekers through Augmented Reality"

Third Place Grand Prize Winner

 

Sara Djurich, Physiological Sciences, "Mathematical Modeling of Neurovascular Coupling"

 

 

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Finalist Videos

Videos are in the presentation order used on April 10, 2021.

Emmy Tisdel, School of Music, College of Fine Arts

 

Adrienne Kinney, Applied Mathematics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, Graduate College

2nd Place Award Winner and Winner of Arizona Institutes for Resilience' Best Environmental Presentation

 

Paula Ugalde, School of Anthropology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences

 

Marwan Abduljawad, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering

1st Place Award Winner

 

Madeline Gauthier, Physiological Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, Graduate College

 

Ashley Guest, Clinical Translational Sciences Graduate Program, College of Medicine

3rd Place Award Winner

 

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Semifinalist Videos

The semifinals consisted of two groups that presented simultaneously in two Zoom meetings. Three presenters from each group moved forward to the Final Round.

Semifinals Group 1

Presentation Order

Semifinals Group 2

Presentation Order

 

Davina Dobbins, Eller College of Management, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, College of Science, Office of Instruction and Assessment

 

James Hollister, Epidemiology and Biostatistics

 

Ashley Guest, Clinical Translational Studies

 

David Cid, Mexican American Studies

 

Mruthyunjay Kubendran Sumathi, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Awaiting consent to share Semifinals Video.

 

Celeste Atkins, Higher Education

Winner of the College of Education's Best College of Education Student Presenter Award

 

Brooke Sykes, School of Plant Sciences

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Marwan Abduljawad, Chemical Engineering

 

Adrienne Kinney, Applied Mathematics

 

Carlie Felion, Nursing

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Tabitha Green, Department of Child Health

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

James McKenzie, Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies

Winner of the College of Education's Best College of Education Student Presenter Award

 

Angell Kim, Public Administration

 

Michelle Herridge, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Emmy Tisdel, School of Music

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Madeline Gauthier, Department of Physiology

 

Paula Ugalde, School of Anthropology

 

Lisa Zieman, Department of Geosciences

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Kayla Frost, Pharmacology and Toxicology

Awaiting consent to share the video.

 

Austin Cruz, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Winner of the College of Science's Best College of Science Student Presenter Award

Awaiting consent to share the video.

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Finalist Videos

Finalist videos are in the presentation order used on April 2, 2019.

 

Jennifer Duchschere, Psychology

 

John Alexander Erwin, Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program and James E. Rogers College of Law

 

Jonathan Credo, Clinical Translational Sciences

2nd Place Award Winner

 

Diana Githu, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

1st Place Award Winner and Best Environment and Social Justice Presentation Award Winner

 

Lauren Meeks, Department of Nutritional Sciences

3rd Place Award Winner

 

Sonia Delphin Pérez, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

 

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Performing and Creative Arts Competition Winners Performances

Performances are in listed in alphabetical order by last name with their program and the title of their performance. The students listed won the first Grad Slam Performing and Creative Arts Competition on March 30, 2019. In addition to winning a cash prize, they are awarded the opportunity to perform as part of the Grad Slam 2019 final round. The performances below are from the Grad Slam final round.

 

Victoria Arredondo, Special Education, Performance of Interspace

 

Antonio Coronado, Communication, Performance of Lost in Transit

 

Francis Larson, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Graduate Interdisciplinary Program, Performance of Masculinity in C#, 1st Movement - "Love"

 

Jacob Ransom, Percussion Performance, Performance of Last Night on Mars

 

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Finalist Videos

Finalist videos are in the presentation order used on April 3, 2018. The grand prize winners went on to represent the University of Arizona at the Southwest Showdown 3-Minute Grad Slam to compete with presenters from Northern Arizona University , University of Nevada, Reno, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

 

Mithun Paul, Dept. of Computer Science, College of Science

 

Lusine Gomtsian, Dept. Medical Pharmacology, College of Medicine - Tucson

1st Place Award Winner

 

Valerie Madera-Garcia, Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

3rd Place Award Winner and Best Environmental Presentation Award Winner

 

Yiyi Huang, Dept. of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Science

 

Quentin Raffaelli, Dept. of Psychology, College of Science

 

Travis Sawyer, College of Optical Sciences

2nd Place Award Winner and People's Choice Award Winner

 

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Finalist Videos

Finalist Presentations in presentation order

The top four presenters went on to represent the UA at the 2017 Arizona 3-Minute Grad Slam. The top presenter also represents the UA at the Western Association of Graduate Schools 3MT competition in Spring 2018.

 

Lourena Arone, Plant Pathology, Impacts of farming practices on the fates of aflatoxin in the environment

People's Choice, Honorable Mention, and Best Environmental Presentation Award Winner

 

Sara Khosravi, Systems and Industrial Engineering, SmartWalk Assistant for Disabled Pedestrians
 
Samantha Reznik, Clinical Psychology, Developing a new intervention for treatment-resistant depression

Second Place Finalist

 
Joan Palmiter Bajorek, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching GIDP, Pronunciation Technology: Clear Speech and Empowerment

 

Tim Frost, Biomedical Engineering GIDP, Accelerating drug discovery with microfluidic models

First Place Finalist

 
Lora Key, History, Mexican Americans in the World War II Era

Third Place Finalist

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Finalist Videos

Link to related UA News Article by La Monica Everett-Haynes "Connected-Vehicles Visionary Wins Grad Slam"

Finalist Presentations

The videos are presented in order of presentation on the day of the event. The top three presenters and the Honorable Mention qualified to represent the UA at the statewide Arizona 3-Minute Grad Slam on April 16, 2016, in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Adam Watson, Doctoral Student, Cancer Biology GIDP, Finalist
Andisheh Ranjbari, Doctoral Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Third Place Finalist
Scott Daniel, Doctoral Student, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Honorable Mention Finalist
Joshua Scholl, Doctoral Student, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Finalist
Alejandro Martinez Chibly, Doctoral Student, Cancer Biology GIDP, 2nd Place Finalist and People's Choice Award Winner
Shayan Khoshmagham, Doctoral Student, Department of Systems and Industrial Engineering, 1st Place Finalist
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Finalist Videos

The following videos showcase the six finalists of Grad Slam 2015. All videos were created by the University of Arizona Libraries, and are presented in order of appearance on April 6, 2015.

Matthew Bronnimann, Doctoral Student, Department of Immunobiology, College of Medicine, Tied for 3rd Place
Rachel LaMantia, Masters Student, College of Architecture, 1st Place Finalist
Emily Mackelprang, Doctoral Student, Department of Psychology, College of Science, 2nd Place Finalist
Victoria Moses, Doctoral Student, School of Anthropology, College of Social and Behavioral Science, Finalist

Nina Patrick, Doctoral Student, Pharmaceutical Sciences Program, College of Pharmacy, Tied for 3rd Place

Jasmine Sears, Doctoral Student, College of Optical Science, Finalist
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