David Nikom found the right metaphor to explain his research about the high incidence of Alzheimer’s in women by looking back at his childhood playing video games with his older brother.
Nikom, a doctoral student in neuroscience, took first place in the 12th annual UCR Grad Slam Final on April 10 at the School of Business Building. The event, hosted by UCR’s Grad Division, featured 11 finalists who each distilled their research into a three-minute presentation before a general audience.
Contestants were judged on clarity, organization, delivery, and engagement with the audience. Each presenter used a single static slide featuring cartoons, photos, illustrations, diagrams, and other methods of explaining their research.
In his presentation, “Leveling the Game: A New Script for Alzheimer’s in Women,” Nikom described how as a 10-year-old he scratched his 15-year-old brother’s favorite video game CD.
“The music skipped, characters glitched and eventually the whole thing crashed,” he said. “The data was still there but the player couldn’t read the script anymore.”
“Our brains go through something similar. To keep us healthy, our cells are constantly reading the genetic script but in Alzheimer’s that script gets corrupted and this corruption hits women the hardest.”
Nikom received a $5,000 prize and will go on to compete in the UC-wide Grad Slam on April 22 in Sacramento. The event will be live streamed.
“It feels great,” Nikom said after he was announced as the winner. “I worked very hard on learning how to communicate my research to a non-science audience, which is new to me.”
Second place with a $2,000 prize went to Thoon Nguyen, a doctoral student in math, for “Geometry of Cell Motility: Cells Don't Move in a Flat World.”
Third place and a $1,000 prize was won by Nala Kachour, a doctoral student in biomedical sciences, for “Built to Last: How Toxoplasma Perpetuates Life-Long Infection.”
Jenni Martinez, a doctoral student in ethnic studies, won the audience award and $1,250 for her personal story about her parents’ deportation “Amordidas: Post-Deportation Recipes of Survival.” She also won $750 from the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, which provided the prize to the top finalist from the college.
The remaining finalists received $250 prizes and honorable mentions. They are:
• Muna Crescent Chahfe, a Master of Fine Arts student in creative writing, for “The Science Behind Why We Love Horror, Its Links to Our Ancestral Roots, and How It Can Elevate the Structured Screenwriter.”
• Koto Katayama, a Master of Fine Arts student in screenwriting, for “Adapting a Manga into a Japanese-American Film.”
• Jasvir Kaur Rababan, a doctoral student in religious studies, for “Music as Medicine.”
• Urvashi Nand Kheskwani, a doctoral student in chemical and environmental sciences, for “Can Air be Cancerous.”
• Nilofar Shoja Razavi, a doctoral student in public policy, for “Who Should Pay for the Rain?”
• Soheil Shirvani, a doctoral student in computer science, for “The Kitchen in Your Pocket: Keeping AI Fast, Private, and Personal.”
• Prakriti Singh, a doctoral student in chemistry, for “Built to Last: The Secret Life of Smoke.”
The judges were: Jeff Pack, UC board of Regents; Kim A. Wilcox, former UCR chancellor; Sol Garay, city of Riverside legislative field representative; Mihoko Hosoi, university librarian; Sandra Martinez, senior communications manager at UCLA’s Latina Futures 2050 Lab; and Rob McMillan, ABC7 Eyewitness News Inland Empire bureau chief.
