Program/Social Activities

Student Elevator Pitch Competition Awards

Students were given 30 seconds to pitch their research topic to a panel of three judges: Siddhartha Srinivasa, Gaurav Sukhatme, and Matthew Gombolay. Each participant was scored across 5 criteria: Motivation, Clarity, Feasibility, Broader Impacts, and Timing. Awards were given to the top three graduate and the top three undergraduate students. The judges were also impressed by one contestant’s pitch, and created a Special Creativity Award. Below are the winners.

Graduate students

1. Rachael Burns
2. Taylor Kessler Faulkner
3. Sayantani Dutta

Undergraduate students

1. Mustafa Mohammed
2. Aman Dhadge

Special Creativity Award

1. Samantha Reig, for creating a sonnet of her research pitch

We want to thank all of our contestants for their participation.

Contestants

• Abhijat Biswas
• Abrar Fallatah
• Ali Ayub
• Aman Dhadge
• Brett Stoddard
• Christine Chang
• Emma van Zoelen
• Filipa Correia
• Ghazal Saheb Jam
• Hamza Mahdi 
• Minso Kim
• Mustafa, Mohammed
• Preeti Ramaraj
• Rachael Burns
• Ruchen (Puck), Wen
• Ryan Blake, Jackson
• Samantha Reig
• Sarah Gillet
• Sayantani Dutta
• Taylor Kessler Faulkner
• Zhi Tan

Judges

• Matthew Gombolay (Georgia Institute of Technology)
• Big thanks to our special guest judges:
  • Sidd Srinivasa (University of Washington)
  • Gaurav Sukhatme (University of Southern California)