Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
To practice discussing my research in non-academic settings and advocate for developing youth! 🙂

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
It was awesome to hear about the cool research other UCLA students are doing! I also really appreciated the workshops and advice from previous grad slam participants. Thank you all!

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
To understand how brain and behavioral developments in adolescence contribute to anxiety trajectories. I also hope to collaborate with adolescents in the future and give them opportunities to engage with the research as they know the adolescent brain better than anyone! 🙂

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I have 2 kitties and I like to boogie board! 🙂

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I knew conveying my research to a broader audience clearly and effectively was an essential skill. Grad Slam gave me the opportunity to practice just that.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
With only 3 minutes to present my work, Grad Slam challenged me to think about the core significance, innovation and impact of my research and to find creative ways to purposefully communicate it.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
My research aims to investigate the early origins of breast cancer, including environmental exposures during pubertal development of girls.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I recently adopted a rescue dog from Mexico named Roscoe! Our favorite activities together are morning/afternoon strolls and napping.

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could explain my research topic to the general public and other UCLA students/faculty in various disciplines using non-scientific jargon.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
Although the preparation to present my research topic under 3 minutes took a very long time, I did learn from the whole experience how to deliver a confident speech/pitch to someone who might be interested in my research. This experience also taught me the basics of emphasizing the important aspects of any research project and make it less daunting overall.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
In addition to investigating the long-term health effects of electronic-cigarettes, I am also interested in studying how ambient air pollution promotes cardiovascular disease and the possible mechanisms involved.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I am a nature lover and in my spare time I love to go outdoors and spend some quality time with nature.

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I participated in Grad Slam this year because I have seen so many wonderful research presentations in previous Grad Slam competitions that inspired me to compete. Furthermore, I want the general public to know and understand more about maternal health research, and I thought this would be a great platform to accomplish that.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
During my preparation for the Grad Slam, the most important thing I learned was how to articulate complicated concepts to the general public in such a way that minimizes confusion and maximizes understanding.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
My goal for my research is to provide more data about the experiences of COVID-positive mothers during their postpartum transitional period so that researchers and clinicians may be able to anticipate issues and design interventions that would address concerns and provide support.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
Although I love the sciences, I am an artistic person. I draw, paint, compose music, sing, and play instruments. I also love finding new hobbies and activities to do with my two toddlers.

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
As I come toward the end of my time at UCLA, I wanted to challenge myself to practice summarizing and communicating my work. This is a valuable skill at every career stage, especially as I prepare to enter the job market. The Grad Slam was a fun, accessible way to address this goal!

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
I learned that describing my research question is perhaps more important than describing my results when I tell people about my work. Maybe now my parents will understand what I’ve been doing all this time.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
My work aims to examine under-studied cells in the human brain (astrocytes!) to determine how they react to disease, which will help identify future treatments for human neurological disease.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I took a year of Danish in college (and forgot all of it), I’m currently binge watching Murder, She Wrote, and I still can’t ride a bike.

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I participated in Grad Slam because I wanted to get practice presenting my research interests to a general audience because the general public is ultimately who will benefit from the research I undertake so it’s important to be able to share that information.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
One thing I learned was framing the work in a way that was engaging.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
The goal of my research is to help develop the methodology of environmental DNA as a tool for studying coastal ecosystems to learn more about these environments and our efforts in preserving them.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
A fun fact about me is that I study marine biology and my last name is Waters!

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
To introduce my research and improve the speech style.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
1:1 Coaching session

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
To develop systems that can help and benefit people in the world.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I’m excited about doing research!

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I want people I meet from all walks of life to get excited about science as much as I do! I participated in Grad Slam to learn how to talk about my research to general audiences and to be able to communicate more effectively in all types of presentation settings.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
The most important thing I learned is that helping listeners create a personal connection with the knowledge you share, whether that is through real stories or thoughtful questions, is one of the best ways to make a memorable presentation.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
A goal of my research is to create a method to determine how long the human gut microbiome can be significantly affected by perturbations such as diets, medicines, and other interventions. I aim to extend this approach to environments beyond the human microbiome as well, so that we can understand how environmental microbiomes are impacted by different events.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I am fluent in Thai and can play the Thai zither, know as a “khim”. I enjoy exploring how to create plant-based versions of dishes I grew up eating in Los Angeles.

Why did you participate in Grad Slam?
I wish to improve my presentation skills.

What is the most important/favorite thing you learned during Grad Slam?
How to make my presentation engaging through the use of simple slides, and making new ideas easier to understand through analogies.

What are your goals/ aims for your research?
To study how control theory can solve challenges in human-robot interaction in the context of exoskeleton robots for assistance and rehabilitation.

What are some fun facts about yourself?
I enjoy mountain biking on the weekends.