Mark your calendars: It’s time for the Nutshell Games! In this fast, fun, and friendly research presentation competition, 28 graduate researchers will tell their research stories in just 90 seconds to a public audience and a panel of judges representing both Virginia Tech and our local community — including, as always, a 7th grader.

    Following a day of fun and learning at the Science Festival, the Nutshell Games will take place at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, November 11, at the Moss Arts Center.

    With presentations on research from seven of Virginia Tech’s colleges, you'll learn about Virginia's rarest turtle, the evolution of the Black travel market, underground salt mines, farming practices, driving safety, traumatic brain injury, artificial intelligence, trouble in the Amazon, and much more, all in less than an hour.

    This year’s panel of judges includes

  • 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

   Registration for the Nutshell Games is open to all Virginia Tech graduate students. A 3-hour preparatory workshop for all participants will be held November 1. Facilitated by Center for Communicating Science faculty Patty Raun and Carrie Kroehler, the workshop will help researchers build their communication skills, find the story in their research, and distill their work into 90 seconds. As with all the center’s work, the focus will be on helping speakers communicate personally, directly, spontaneously, responsively, and with emotional vividness.

    Participants are provided with a simple set of rules:

  • Have fun with it! 
  • Your presentation must be 90 seconds maximum. Presentations longer than 90 seconds will be disqualified.
  • No PowerPoint slides or additional electronic media (e.g., sound or video files) are permitted. One prop or visual aid is permitted (e.g., a piece of lab equipment or large photograph). 
  • You must speak in prose! No songs, poems, raps, etc. 
  • The judges' decision is final. 

    They’re also given the criteria used by the judges in selecting five winners:

  • Did the presenter make a connection with the audience?
  • Did the presenter communicate the importance of the research?
  • Was the research accessible to a non-specialist?
  • Did the presenter capture and keep their audience's attention?
  • Did the presenter convey enthusiasm or other emotion related to the research?
  • Did the presenter convey a sense of confidence?
  • Did the presentation make the audience want to know more?

    Presented by the Center for Communicating Science, this event is open to the public free of charge.  

    This year's participants include

Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health:

Caroline de Jager, Proteins on blood vessels influence the severity of traumatic brain injury, Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health

Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine:

Md. Shakhawat Hossain, One shield for multiple enemies, Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

Pamplin College of Business:

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

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences:

Abdulhadi Kobiowu, Biting back with genetics: Disarming the yellow fever mosquito, Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology

Logan Layne, AI for educational equity, Agricultural and Extension Education

Jitender Rathore, No farm no grain! Predicting crop maturity and harvest time using satellite imagery, Plant and Environmental Sciences

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

Amolpreet Kaur Saini, Guardians of the fruit: How rootstocks shield against the cold, Plant and Environmental Sciences

College of Engineering:

Kiymet Akdemir, Fairness in generative AI models, Computer Science and Applications

Martha Gizaw, Check your snooze before you cruise, Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics

Wendell Grinton, Jr., Cut the bill: Using brain imaging technology to promote energy savings, Construction Engineering and Management 

Shawal Khalid, On the road again: Blockchain oriented software engineering, Computer Science

Ruturaj Sambhus, AI learns to control the device that plays the role of muscles in humanoid robots, Mechanical Engineering

College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences:

Helen Ajao, Crafting daily excellence: Unveiling routine mastery in instructional design, Instructional Design and Technology

Sean Pierre Chambers, Blessings under Maafa's shadow: The sociology and ethics of friendship among Black Baptist men, Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought

Ashley Costello, Lions, pandas, and lemurs. Oh my. . .(Trauma in higher education), Higher Education

Aline de Souza, The potential of artistic work to disrupt anti-immigration discourses, Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought

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

College of Natural Resources and Environment:

Gabriel Borba, Effects of climate change in fisheries, Fish and Wildlife Conservation

Lisley Gomes, Rethinking wildlife use in the urbanizing Amazonia, Fish and Wildlife Conservation

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

Emily Sinkular, Wildlife is for every body, Fish and Wildlife Conservation

College of Science:

Nandini Das, From pests to prosperity: Incentive-driven pest management for farmers, Economics

Abdeali Jivaji, Giant viruses: Larger than life, Biological Sciences

Celina Meyer, Household chaos and socioemotional development, Developmental Science 

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

Rose McGroarty, Watch for falling rocks! How we can see where rocks WILL fall in underground salt mines, Geosciences

Ross Spoon, GameStop in the lab, Economics