Grad Slam
The 2025 UC Santa Cruz Grad Slam will take place at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on
Saturday, March 1
7:00–9:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)
With Live Stream and People’s Choice Voting
Preliminary divisional rounds to determine the finalists will take place the first full week of February at the Graduate Student Commons, 7:00–9:00 p.m. every evening.
- February 3: Social Sciences Division
- February 4: Physical and Biological Sciences Division
- February 5: Humanities Division
- February 6: Baskin School of Engineering
- February 7: Arts Division
What is Grad Slam?
Grad Slam is a communication contest hosted by the UC Santa Cruz Graduate Division that is open to all graduate students, except those who have won 1st place in a previous Grad Slam. (Currently enrolled graduate students who have won 2nd or the people’s choice in a prior Grad Slam may enter again.) Participants have a maximum of three minutes to explain their graduate research or artistic endeavor to a general audience.
Prizes
- First Place, Grad Slam Champion: $3000
- Second Place: $1500
- People’s Choice: $750 (decided by text message voting, one vote per audience member, both those in person and watching the live stream)
Every UC holds a Grad Slam, and the ten UC Grad Slam champions compete in the UC Office of the President’s Grad Slam. The UC system-wide Grad Slam will take place on Tuesday, April 29, at the UC Center Sacramento, time to be determined.
System-wide Grad Slam Rules from the UC Office of the President
Eligibility
All graduate students currently enrolled in UCSC master’s or doctor’s graduate programs are eligible to compete. Prior first-place winners of Grad Slam may not compete. In cases of collaborative research, the presenter’s contribution to the project must be salient and clearly specified.
Visuals
Slides
- A maximum of one static Microsoft Office PowerPoint slide, exclusive of the title slide to be generated by the UCSC Graduate Division, is allowed but is optional. No Prezi or other slide presentation formats are allowed.
- The slide must be static. Media, sound, transitions, and animations are not allowed.
- Students must create their PowerPoint slides themselves; they cannot ask someone else to design the slides.
- The use of PowerPoint templates is allowed.
- The slide can include visual elements (charts, maps, photos, clip art, etc.) created by someone other than the student, as long as the slide credits the original creator.
- Submissions may not contain any copyrighted material, such as licensed graphics.
Props are allowed but need to be cleared by the Graduate Division Grad Slam organizer, require minimal set-up, and produce no mess.
Scoring
Judging focuses on the presentation and the ability to communicate graduate research or artistic endeavors to a non-specialist audience. Judges rate presenters with a score of 1 to 5:
- 1=Poor
- 2=Fair
- 3=Good
- 4=Very Good
- 5=Excellent
Judges may give scores with half-points above 1 and below 5. Judges give scores in the following four categories:
- Accessibility: The presenter translated their graduate study focus, their contribution to this work, 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 graduate work and captured and maintained the audience’s attention.
Timing commences when the student engages with the audience. (If engagement starts with a hand clap, a gesture, an audio or video clip, or any other such engagement prior to speaking, the clock begins at that time; if there is no such engagement, the clock starts when the student begins speaking.) Timing will end after the last word is spoken. Points will be deducted from the final score, beginning with one point at 3:03, and one point being taken off for every two seconds the speaker continues after that.
IN THIS SECTION