Short selling and short squeezes. Driving with sleep disorders. Disrupting the Amazon’s heartbeat. These and two dozen more topics were shared by graduate students from seven of Virginia Tech’s colleges at the Nutshell Games on November 11.

    Each with an allotment of just 90 seconds for their talks, 27 courageous researcher-communicators entertained and educated friends, family members, colleagues, and others gathered at the Moss Arts Center. The audience learned that blockchain is like a private notebook full of data, that cracks in the rocks of salt mines can be found and reinforced before disaster strikes, and that human bias is reproduced by artificial intelligence. They heard about the invigorating challenges of training the “muscles” of robots, the astonishing ability of roots to protect plants from the cold, and the tantalizing possibility that exposure to one virus might protect us from others. Incentivizing farmers to try new practices, rethinking wildlife use in the Amazon, easing traumatic brain injury, and helping consumers save both energy and money also were topics in the fast-paced presentation competition.

    Although we bill the Nutshell Games as a contest, and we do have judges and prizes, every single one of these committed and creative graduate researchers is a winner in our eyes. The effort they put into making their research understandable to all, the creativity with which they select their costumes and props and craft their 90 seconds of time on stage, and the courage it takes to leave their labs and fieldwork and computers to share their work with the rest of us is inspiring. We are grateful to them all!

This photo shows the five winners and seven judges for the Nutshell Games, people of various genders, races, and national origins, posing for a photo beneath a slide that reads "Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science thanks you for joining us for the Nutshell Games!"
The winners (holding certificates) and judges of the November 11, 2023, Nutshell Games posed for a group photograph after the event. From left, back row: Jean Parrella, Susan Mattingly, William Huckle, John Bush, Eli Russell, John Tedesco. Front row: Madoc Gitre, Chris Heasley, Connor Hughes, Vincent Maluwa, Caitlin Miller, Charis Tucker.

    Our panel of judges, volunteer respondents from both campus and community, had the tough job of selecting five presenters to receive $500 scholarships. Their slate of winners, representing five of Virginia Tech’s colleges, included

·         Chris Heasley, Supporting rural students: Why rural matters, Counselor Education and Supervision

·         Connor Hughes, Finding Virginia's rarest turtle, Fish and Wildlife Conservation

·         Caitlin Miller, Evolutionary challenges and opportunities when moving into new areas, Biological Sciences

·         Eli Russell, Turning the combine from a weed seed spreader into a weed seed predator, Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science

·         Charis N. Tucker, From the Green Book to the "gram": Exploring the evolution of the Black travel market, Hospitality and Tourism Management

    Registration for the Nutshell Games is open to all Virginia Tech graduate students. The event was first held as part of the celebration of the opening of the Center for Communicating Science in March of 2017. This fall’s Nutshell Games marks the ninth time the center has presented the event. A 3-hour preparatory workshop open to all participants is held in advance, and this fall presenters also attended a brief orientation and technical rehearsal in the Moss Arts Center on the day of the event. As with all the center’s work, the focus is on helping speakers communicate personally, directly, spontaneously, responsively, and with emotional vividness.

    Presenters may have one prop and select a costume that supports their talk. They may not use PowerPoint slides or additional electronic media. Poetry and song are also prohibited; presentations must be in spoken prose. The most important rule, however, is to have fun. All presenters receive certificates of participation and professionally recorded videos of their talks.

    Presenters, in order of appearance, were

    This year’s panel of judges included

  • John Bush, Blacksburg town council member
  • Madoc Gitre, Blacksburg Middle School 7th grader
  • William Huckle, associate dean of graduate education at Virginia Tech
  • Vincent Maluwa, MFA candidate in arts leadership at Virginia Tech
  • Susan Mattingly, Blacksburg town council member
  • Jean Parrella, assistant professor, life sciences communications, Virginia Tech
  • John Tedesco, director, School of Communication, Virginia Tech

    Thank you, judges, presenters, and audience members! We couldn't do this without all of you.