The 2025 Postdoc Research Slam

We highly recommend reading and utilizing 3 Steps to Persuasive Knowledge Translation. Your goal with your abstract should be to tell an engaging story that hooks the reader and convinces them that your research matters. 

The reviewers select abstracts based on the following criteria:

1. Accessibility: How well are the technical aspects of the research conveyed to a general audience (e.g. avoidance of jargon and acronyms, too focused on the details of the method or research design)?
2. Impact and benefit: Does the abstract clearly establish the overall impact, significance, novelty and/or benefits of the research to the field and broader society?
3. Interest: Does the abstract effectively convey a sense of excitement or passion for knowledge generation? Does this enthusiasm resonate with the audience?
4. Clarity: Is the central problem and its proposed solution clear, or is it lacking a specific focus? Does the applicant ‘tell a story’ about their research?

Applicants

• All participants submitting abstracts must be current postdoctoral scholars at the University of Calgary.
• This event is for individual competitors. No pairs or groups will be permitted.
• Presentations must be based on research directly related to the postdoctoral scholar’s research.

Finalists

• A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted (no slide transitions, animations or 'movement' of any description, the slide is to be presented from the beginning of the oration). Images used in the slide must be your own, or you must have permission from the owner of the photo(s) and provide proper credit(s).
• No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted.
• No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment, laser pointers or note cards) are permitted.
• Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum. Presentations that go over 3 minutes will have marks deducted from scoring.
• Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g. no poems, raps or songs).
• Presentations are to commence from the stage.
• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through movement or speech.
• The decision of the adjudicating panel is final.

Each of the three judging criteria has equal weight. Note that each criterion has an emphasis on the audience.

1st Place
Dr. Michelle Hawks: Are past math classes haunting us? Using history to explore ideas of intelligence in math

2nd Place
Dr. Daniel Comaduran Marquez: Brain-controlled devices for playing sports

3rd Place
Dr. Meaghan Perdue: Reading isn't as easy as A-B-C: Looking into the brain to understand reading disability
 

Other Finalists:
 

Dr. Youssef Allami: Do predictors of remission from a gambling disorder apply equally to everyone?

Dr. Kaue Duarte Tartarotti Nepomuceno: Detecting Signs of Dementia sooner using Artificial Intelligence

Dr. Xiao Yang Fang (Yangyang): Radical Mental Health Doulas: A New Approach to Care

Dr. Kenzie Friesen: It’s common sense!: Sensors in mouthguards can be used to sense risk factors of concussion

Dr. Maryam Ghahremani: Mild behavioural impairment (MBI) in early-stage dementia

Dr. Sedigheh Mahdavi: Application of Cattle Manure to Make Oil Production More Sustainable in Alberta?

Dr. Connor McDougall: Optimizing Medical Imaging in Stroke Care

Dr. Mohammad Rehan: Construction of Real Human Lung 3D Tissue in Lab to Study Lung Diseases

Dr. Patrick Sipila: Discovery of drug resistance-informed treatment approach for pediatric malignancies

1st Place: Cameron Semper, Cumming School of Medicine, Producing Meat from Cell Cultures: Helping to Reduce Costs in the Field of Cellular Agriculture.

2nd Place: Catherine Hume, Cumming School of Medicine, Investigating ‘The Munchies’; How Does Cannabis Use Alter Our Eating Habits?

3rd Place (tie):

• Chukwunonso Nzelu, Cumming School of Medicine, Prior Exposure to Insect Bites Creates a Good Environment for Deadly Diseases 
• Samantha Noyek, Faculty of Arts, Photos Sculpt Life Stories of Youth Undergoing Major Surgery. 

People’s Choice: Deepika Dogra, Cumming School of Medicine, A Precision Medicine Approach to Modelling a Rare Pediatric Eepilepsy

Watch all of the videos here.

Francina Agosti: Sensory neurons at the rescue against infection

Bruna Araujo David: Maternal serum prevents newborn death by Escherichia coli infection

Sofia Backaberg: The way you move matters - now and later

Raquel Farias Franyutti: Integrating lung function and laboratory measurements to identify COVID-19 disease categories in the intensive care unit

Simona Denise Frederiksen: Rare Diseases have Many Faces: The Road to Diagnostic Success

Leigh Gabel: Skeletons on a mission: understanding bone loss on long-duration spaceflight (2nd Place Winner)

Michèle L. Hébert: Solving the Maze: Understanding the Journey and Opening Doors for Children with Disabilities and Their Family

Steven Hersch: Fighting fire with fire to kill antibiotic resistant bacteria

Catherine Hume: Is having 'the munchies' bad for our health?

Matthew Josephson: Hot or Cold? Understanding how organisms can live in a wide range of temperatures

Tiffany Prete: Surviving Colonization in Photographs (1st Place Winner)

Anu Räisänen: Young people with old knees: We KNEE-d to prevent osteoarthritis after a knee injury

Mostafa Salari: Social Distancing in passengers seat assignment

Anne-Marieke Smid: Modern dairy farming: to graze or not to graze? (3rd Place Winner)

Renata Kruger: A bike ride to thrive in assisted living care.

Liz Baker, Faculty of Social Work: Preventing Dating Violence on College Campuses

Tiffany Bell, Cumming School of Medicine: I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it: Understanding brain hyperexcitability in childhood migraine

Lauren Benson, Faculty of Kinesiology: Sport Injury Prevention with Wearable Technology

Jaime Colmenares, Faculty of Science: Once upon a time, I met Isotopes

Mahdad Eghbalian, Schulich School of Engineering: A novel multiscale model of hydraulic fracturing in tight rocks

Raquel Farias Franyutti, Cumming School of Medicine: The neuro-immune axis in the lung: understanding how our nerves communicate with our immune cells to protect us from infection (3rd Place Winner)

Eli Kinney-Lang, Cumming School of Medicine: Imagine that! Using Brain-Computer Interfaces and Imagined Sign Language to Enable Children with Complex Communication Needs (2nd Place Winner)

Brae Anne McArthur, Faculty of Arts: Identifying the "Digital Tipping Point": Understanding the Relation between Screen Time and Child Development (1st Place Winner)

Zahra Shakeri Hossein Abad, Cumming School of Medicine: A novel artificial intelligence system to protect children from unhealthy food and brand marketing in the digital age

Maria Stietz, Veterinary Medicine: Know your enemy

Ivana Vranjes, Haskayne School of Business:  #MeToo - But don't tell anyone…

Chunyang Yu, Schulich School of Engineering: Navigation for Pedestrians and Autonomous Vehicles