UCSB crowns 2017 Grad Slam champion

After two weeks of competition and 71 amazing presenters, nine graduate students competed for thousands of dollars and Grad Slam glory at the final round on Friday, April 21, at 3 p.m.​ With a packed house in Corwin Pavilion and thousands watching the live-stream coverage online, we crowned our 2017 UCSB Grad Slam champion. (See a full lineup of final round presenters and topics here.)

The people with the second-hardest job in the house (after the presenters) were our amazing panel of judges, ​which featured:

• Mark A. Bertelsen, ​Former Trustee of the UCSB Foundation
• Joseph Incandela, ​UCSB Professor of Physics and Interim Vice Chancellor of Research
• Margaret Klawunn, UCSB Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
• Monique Limón, Assembly Member for the 37th District

Without further ado, the judges' choices for the two runners-up (and winners of $2,500 cash prizes each) are:

Eric Jorgensen
(Theater Studies)

and

Max Nowak
(Chemical Engineering)

And the winner of the 2017 Grad Slam, including a $5,000 cash prize and a chance to win big at the UC Grad Slam against other campuses, is:

Leah Foltz
(Biomolecular Science & Engineering)

In addition to our judges' choices, all of our presenters were so outstanding that Writing Peer Kyle Crocco also compiled his own list of superlatives:

• Jim Mondo: Best interview (Q: "What are you doing when you're not studying fruit flies?" A: "I'm mostly studying fruit flies.")
• Kelly Ibsen: Coolest video of jabbing a needle into your stomach
• David Miller: Best future video game title (Plants, Cities, and Satellites)
• Amanda Kaczmarek: Best Ikea reference ("This mental rotation task is familiar to you if you tried to put a table together from Ikea.")
• Leah Foltz: Best reason to fear typos (Typos in your genes can make you blind.)
• Daniel Phillips: Best use of drawing to solve political problems
• Eric Jorgensen: Best orator
• Dominique Houston: Best singing ("Forever Young!")
• Max Nowak: Best subliminal suggestion ("Don't think of a pen.")

Congratulations to all of our competitors, and tune in on Thursday, May 4, for live-stream coverage of the UC-wide Grad Slam and the chance to vote for UCSB's Leah Fotlz in the People's Choice component!