2019 ICAR Pechakucha contest
Participants of the Pechakucha contest. Back row from left to right: Kathie Seley-Radtke (organizer), Li-Hsin Li , Cole Schonhofer, Sonali Chaturvedi, Dhruvkumar Soni, Florencia Torti , ISAR President Johan Neyts and president Elect Kara Carter. Front row from left to right : Julia Ma, Tiffany Edwards Maria Julieta Thome, and Ila Nimgoakar | The second annual ICAR Pechakucha contest was held on Tuesday afternoon on the main conference floor and nine finalists competed for the prize money to a packed audience! The graduate student and postdoctoral finalists included Julia Ma, Dhruvkumar Soni, Florencia Torti, Ila Nimgoankar, Maria Julieta Tohme, Tiffany Edwards, Sonali Chaturvedi, Cole Schonhofer and Li-Hsin Li, representing a number of different countries including the US, India, Canada, Argentina, and Belgium. For those not familiar with the art of Pechakucha, it requires a pretimed presentation – 20 slides, 20 seconds each, although we adapted it to 15 slides, 20 seconds each to allow for more contestants. The contestant cannot touch the slide advancer and must deliver the information before the slide automatically advances. A good Pechakucha talk must include humor as well as to inform, both about one’s science and also about one’s self. The key is to surprise the audience with interesting science but also entertain – and our finalists did not disappoint! ! |
From a Game of Thrones themed talk, to a “sleepy” elf hat that kept reappearing on the presenter as well as his data, to an Avengers’ themed talk, to a historically themed fairy tale with “chapters”, as well as to the “far far away galaxies of the universe” and an accurately dressed Vulcan with pointy ears and eyebrows, our brave finalists did indeed inform us and also entertained us! At the end, it was a tough decision with a very tight vote, however the three champions crowned were Ila Nimgoakar, aka “the Vulcan”, who took home first place and $250, Florencia Torti, our fairy tale storyteller who won second place and $150 and finally, the soon to be “Dr.” Tiffany Edwards with her plea to “please hire me”, took home third place and $75. A big thanks to all of the judges who gave up their time to help, and of course, to Johan and Kara for supporting this fun event! We hope to see everyone again next year – and of course, we encourage all of the graduate students and postdocs to create new and exciting Pechakucha talks to entertain and inform us next year in Seattle! |
The winners of the Pechakucha contest (from left to right), Kathie Seley-Radtke (organizer), Tiffany Edwards (third prize), Florencia Torti (second prize), Ila Nimgoakar (first prize) and ISAR President Johan Neyts |
16 July 2019