With $500 for conference travel and a highly coveted squirrel trophy on the line, the Center for Communicating Science established a space for undergraduate researchers to compete for the best research presentation given in just 90 seconds. 

    The second annual Undergraduate Nutshell Games took place on April 24, 2026, at the Dennis Dean Research and Creative Scholarship Conference, hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research. The number of competitors more than doubled from the inaugural year: Ten undergraduate researchers put their communication skills to the test by developing and rehearsing 90-second presentations that would make their research stand out to a group of three judges. 

    Charlotte Monck and Nikhitha Khasnavis were named this year’s winners. All participants had spent six weeks of work on their presentations and were eligible to receive a $500 conference travel stipend provided through the Theatre STEM program, but Monck and Khasnavis were given a prized “Shelly the Squirrel” trophy in addition to the stipend.

Charlotte Monck and Nikhitha Khasnavis pose with their squirrel statue trophies and Center for Communicating Science mugs. Both girls wear white blouses and black pants, and have long dark brown hair.
Charlotte Monck (left) and Nikhitha Khasnavis (right) proudly pose with their "Shelly the Squirrel" trophies and Center for Communicating Science beaker mugs. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    “Shelly the Squirrel” became the unofficial mascot of the Undergraduate Nutshell Games after the winner of the premier event, Tarun Nandamundi, was given a squirrel trophy as his first-place prize in 2025. Erin Smith, the center’s project coordinator, intended for Shelly to be a traveling trophy, which would be passed on to the new winners of each iteration of the games. Nandamudi became rightfully attached to Shelly, and Smith realized that it would be cruel to make the winners give her away. The Undergraduate Nutshell Games coordinators decided that going forward, the previous winners would simply present new Shelly the Squirrel trophies to the current year’s winners to create a connection between cohorts.

    “It's a reminder that the Nutshell Games are about more than a single presentation or competition. They're about joining a community of researchers and communicators,” said Brittney Harris, Center for Communicating Science’s co-director of research. “As Shelly moves from one group of winners to the next, she carries those shared experiences and celebrates the growth that happens along the way.”

    Nandamudi, happy to come back and see the second annual games, passed the torch (in this case, two small squirrel trophies) to Monck and Khasnavis. 

    Nandamudi was one of four presenters at the very first Undergraduate Nutshell Games, held in April 2025, and relayed how learning to communicate science effectively changed the course of his studies.

    “I loved learning more about the intersection of theatre and STEM from [Professor Harris], as it forced me to get out of my comfort zone as an engineering student,” Nandamundi said, “The program was one of the reasons why I ended up doing a theatre minor.”

Tarun Nandamundi, an undergraduate student with short black hair, wearing a grey sweater with a white collared shirt underneath, holds two squirrel statue trophies to hand off to the winners of the Nutshell Games.
Tarun Nandamundi holds two "Shelly the Squirrel" trophies, ready to hand them off to the newest winners of the Undergraduate Nutshell Games. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    To prepare for the games, the undergraduate researchers attended two communicating science workshops and three to four small-group coaching sessions with Harris as part of the Theatre STEM program over the course of six weeks. Harris served as the lead facilitator and presentation coach for the program and focused on helping the researchers find the meaning in their work.

    “In 90 seconds, the goal isn't to explain an entire project,” Harris said. “It's to highlight a particular idea, finding, or question in a way that sparks curiosity and invites the audience to want to learn more.”

    Students had the opportunity to learn from and support one another throughout the process. 

    “It was exciting to watch that sense of community develop as they refined their presentations together,” Harris said.

Brittney Harris, an adult woman with curly black hair and a large smile is wearing a black blazer and jeans. She holds a colorful clipboard in her left hand and is holding both her arms up in the middle of a big dance, ready to make the crowd excited.
Brittney Harris pumps up the crowd, excited to start the presentations. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    The Nutshell Games are open to undergraduate student applicants at any stage of their academic careers, from first-year student researchers just getting started to seniors about to leave it all behind. The buzz generated by the first iteration of the games caused the application process for this year’s event to be competitive. Harris said that the program coordinators looked for students who seemed excited to engage in the process and wanted to take on the challenge of communicating their work to a broad audience. 

A huge congratulations to all ten undergraduate research presenters, who worked hard to give engaging 90-second talks:

  • Michael Loin, geosciences, “4000 years of bat poop”

  • Hannah Petersen, electrical engineering, “SAF and aircrafts”

  • Apple Zhou, electrical and computer engineering, “Listening for drones”

  • Jenna Kapp, chemical engineering, “Rare earth metals & sustainability”

  • Angela Jiang, aerospace engineering, “Cleaner planes”

  • Sean Clark, mathematics, “Learning mathematics”

  • Charlotte Monck, clinical neuroscience, “Fruit flies & temperature”

  • Roman Matamoros, biochemistry, “Drug resistant fungi”

  • Brooklyn Harris, geosciences, “Extinct kings of the sea”

  • Nikhitha Khasnavis, computer science, “TRACE & the seafood trade”

The event’s judges were

  • Silas Grace, local 7th grader

  • Dee Hopkins, academic advisor for the School of Performing Arts

  • Dickson Otieno, postdoctoral associate for the Center for Communicating Science

The judges for the Undergraduate Nutshell Games stand at the front of a room next to Brittney Harris. Dee Hopkins, a white woman in a white dress stands on the left, and Dickson Otieno, a black man in a navy suit, stands on the right.
Harris stands with two of the judges, Dee Hopkins (left) and Dickson Otieno (right). Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Harris’ student cohort spent their six weeks building confidence. 

    “The more opportunities students had to embody their research and tell the story of their work out loud, the more confident they became,” Harris said. “They stopped simply reporting on the research and started sharing why they cared about it. I enjoy watching students find joy in talking about their work and realizing they have something valuable to contribute.”

    Harris explained that teaching researchers to present their science effectively and engagingly is the primary mission of the Center for Communicating Science. Training undergraduate researchers as they enter the world of science is the best way to set them up for success in the future and help them be better communicators, she said.

    The approach seemed to work.    

    “The Nutshell Games reframed how I approached science communication, and how I can utilize storytelling and theatre to share my research,” Nandamudi said. “This experience showed me that just because the purpose of a speech is different, it doesn't mean the techniques or methods you use to convey your message have to completely change.”

Apple Zhou stands in front of a microphone, speaking into it with a smile on her face. She has long black hair and is wearing both a black blouse and black pants
Apple Zhou, an electrical and computer engineering major, presents her research on listening for drones. Photo by Bria Weisz for Virginia Tech.

    Smith added that the second annual Undergraduate Nutshell Games gave student researchers an opportunity to look more deeply into their work to discover what is most important and meaningful about it.

    “The point is to show that we are all in this together, to support, encourage, and learn from our peers and teammates,” Smith said. “Science thrives when collaboration thrives. In a world where being able to communicate your science is more important than ever, these young students will be ahead of the game.”

By Ruby Warnick, Center for Communicating Science student intern