Presenters
Eligibility: All graduate students currently enrolled in UCSB Master’s or doctoral graduate programs are eligible to participate.
Collaboration: In cases of collaborative research, the presenter’s individual contribution to the project must be salient and clearly specified.
Publicity Permissions
By signing up, presenters agree to allow the UCSB Graduate Division to use their photos and videos for publicity surrounding the contest and/or in other contexts, such as promotional materials, website, etc. If you have questions or concerns about making your presentation publicly available, please contact Shawn Warner.
Visuals
Presentation slides are allowed but not required. There are no longer any restrictions on the number and content of slides that presenters may use. However, we request that all presenters use Google Slides if they are creating visuals to accompany their talk.
We hope that these changes will allow participants to think critically and creatively about what types of visuals (if any) will best support the content of their talk. Please note that slides must be original to the student and cannot be generated by a professional; inclusion of photos, visuals, charts, and graphics created by others is allowed but must be properly cited or attributed.
When creating slides, presenters may use the Google Slides template below as a starting point; however they are not restricted to the designs included in it. The template contains preloaded colors and fonts that follow UCSB's visual identity guidelines.
Please note that if slides are created using a platform other than Google Slides, the organizers cannot guarantee that they will be displayed correctly in the master slide deck.
Important Note: At the UC-wide competition, there will be different rules for the use of visuals. Presenters are allowed only one slide but they are allowed to use animation. The judging rubric section on visuals will be eliminated. The Graduate Division will work to support UCSB's campus champion in adapting their visuals, if any, to meet these standards.
Timing
Presentations should be no more than 3 minutes total in length.
The talk timer begins when the student starts talking. For the preliminary rounds, a member of the Graduate Division will be seated in the front row with an iPad timer that presenters may use for reference during their talk.
If the presentation is longer than 3 minutes, points will be deducted from the final score as follows (not to exceed a total of 10 points deducted for timing penalties):
3:03-3:05 - 1 point deducted
3:06-3:08 - 2 points deducted
3:09-3:11 - 3 points deducted
3:12-3:14 - 4 points deducted
3:15-3:17 - 5 points deducted
etc.
Judging & Scoring
Judging for the Preliminary Rounds will take place live and in person. Judging for the Final Round Showcase will take place asynchronously ahead of time based on recorded versions of talks, and the winners will be announced live at the Final Round.
In order to reflect a diversity of audiences, all judging panels will be comprised of a mix of faculty, staff, students (grad and undergrad), and community members. Judges are selected to ensure disciplinary and professional diversity, and every effort will be made to minimize conflicts of interest.
The four categories are:
Accessibility
The presenter translated their research and its disciplinary significance into language that all of us can understand
Organization
The presenter delivered a talk that followed a clear and logical sequence
Delivery
The presenter delivered the talk with an effective performance style in terms of body language, eye contact, expression, volume, and pace
Engagement
The presenter conveyed enthusiasm for their research and captured and maintained the audience’s attention
Note that presenters will no longer be judged on their visuals and the former criteria have been streamlined into these new categories in order to evaluate the types of skills we aim to train students on.
Additionally, there is space at the bottom of the scorecard for judges to enter their written feedback for presenters as well. This feedback, along with the scores, will be compiled and shared anonymously with students via email within one week after the round.