Graduate Students in Biomedical Engineering Present Research at TGIF! Symposium Series

Sep. 26, 2016

On Friday, Sept. 9, three graduate students in biomedical engineering each stood for 20 minutes before a room full of their peers and professors. The students—Ishita Tandon, Jakob Hockman, and Xiaoquan Sun—were asked to describe their research on the chalk/whiteboard using minimal powerpoint slides, and field whatever questions arose from their audience on the fly.

If this sounds a little nerve-wracking, that's precisely the point — these presentations are part of the Department of Biomedical Engineering's new TGIF! Graduate Research Symposium series, which is coordinated by assistant professor Kartik Balachandran to help graduate students prepare for future presentations to colleagues.

Balachandran said, "The objective is to train our students to think scientifically on their feet under pressure."

Raj Rao, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, added, "The purpose of our TGIF! Research Symposium is to present our faculty and students an opportunity to get together in an informal setting and 'clinically dissect' ideas and research findings. This is a wonderful learning experience for our students and presents avenues to hone presentation skills as well."

Following the presentations, the students received feedback on both content and style, ranging from tips on how to make research more accessible to how to best arrange information. Hockman, who delivered a talk on modeling nano building block (nBlocks) and controlling plasmonic response of nanomaterials and nanoparticles, said, "It was more intense than I was expecting but it was more fun too. I got stumped by a few of the questions they asked but they were good questions and helped me learn more about the subject I'm studying. I'm glad I got to experience talking to a room full of very well-educated people — better to try it now rather than wait until there is a degree or a job on the line!"

Contacts

Elizabeth DeMeo, media specialist

Biomedical Engineering

479-575-4667, eademeo@uark.edu

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