2018 Grad Slam Judge Panel.

Grad Slam Judging

Volunteer to Judge

Volunteers play a key role as competition judges for the Grad Slam Qualifying Round events. All UC Davis faculty and staff members are invited to volunteer as a judge for the Grad Slam Qualifying round. No research experience is required, as presenters are tasked with communicating their research to a public audience. A panel of faculty and staff members will judge each preliminary round. The judges will be selected to ensure disciplinary diversity and every effort will be made to minimize conflicts of interest (e.g., a faculty advisor will not judge a preliminary round involving his or her advisee).

For more information about Grad Slam judging responsibilities, please contact Kathryn Raley, Program and Event Manager, at knraley@ucdavis.edu.

Competition Rules

  • Eligibility
  • All graduate students currently enrolled in UC Davis master's or doctoral graduate programs are eligible to compete in Grad Slam.
  • Collaboration
  • In cases of collaborative research, the presenter’s contribution to the project must be salient and clearly specified.
  • Presentation and Visuals
  • - PowerPoint slides allowed but optional; no Prezi or other presentation formats.

    - Maximum of 3 slides, exclusive of title slide to be generated by Graduate Studies.

    - Students must create their PowerPoint slides themselves - you cannot ask someone else to design the slides. Use of PowerPoint templates is allowed. Slides can include visual elements (charts, visualizations, photos, clip art, etc.) created by someone other than the student, as long as the slide credits the original creator.

    - Embedded audio and/or video clips (including but not limited to .gif, .avi, .mp4, .mp3, and .wmv file types) are not permitted unless they are deemed indispensable to the communication of the research topic. To request the inclusion of audio or video clip, participants must send both the presentation with the embedded media and a short statement of justification to the Graduate Studies Grad Slam Planning Committee. Requests must be sent to knraley@ucdavis.edu at least two weeks prior to the competition.

    - No PowerPoint animation effects are allowed (use of PowerPoint animation tab not allowed).

    - Props are allowed, but need to be cleared by the committee, require minimal set-up, and not produce a mess.

  • Timing
  • Timing will commence from the moment the student starts talking; points will be deducted from the final score as follows:

    - 3:03-3:04  1 point
    - 3:05-3:06  2 points
    - 3:07-3:08  3 points
    - 3:09-3:10  4 points
    - 3:11-3:12    5 points

    Speakers will be cut off at 3:30 (total 15 point deduction).
  • Judges
  • A panel of faculty and staff members will judge each preliminary round. The judges will be selected to ensure disciplinary diversity and every effort will be made to minimize conflicts of interest (e.g., a faculty advisor will not judge a preliminary round involving his or her advisee).
  • Winners
  • There will be 10 winners from the qualifying round that advance to the semi-final rounds. ​In the semi-final round the top winner will advance to the University of California final round. 

Judge Training Video