 Hey Huskers, I have some fan-freaking-tastic news that I get to share with you. If you have attended every SLAM event on the UNL campus, if you're a SLAM acolyte and enthusiast, the Student Research Day SLAM is for you. If you've heard about the SLAMs that have taken place over the past several years, you've been curious but never attended one, the Student Research Day SLAM is for you. And if you have never heard of a SLAM and have no idea what I'm raving about, the Student Research Day SLAM is for you and I'm gonna tell you why. So in 2016, the UNL Science SLAM was the first event of its kind in the country. And it was established with the mission to share and communicate research across the divides of discipline and expertise. In this next iteration of the SLAM, this next generation of the SLAM, if you will, we are doubling down and leveling up on that commitment to radical interdisciplinary. So the Student Research Day SLAM is open to undergraduate students and graduate students from all disciplines, including STEM fields, but also the arts and the humanities. And we are really excited about this opportunity to bring together student researchers and students involved in creative activity across campus departments. And the opportunity that that presents to have a dialogue, to find common ground, to find synergy and to really explore opportunities to integrate different fields across campus. So this is the first ever Student Research Day SLAM taking place appropriately enough during the Spring Student Research Day is 2022. It will be on April 13th and applications are now open. You can apply via Flipgrid. If you're watching this video on Flipgrid, you may already know that. The prompt for this year's Student Research Day SLAM asks you to consider a skill or an ability that you have developed or honed through your experience doing research or being involved in creative activity that you think would really make the world a better place if everyone had that skill or ability. So we're encouraging you to kind of think outside of what the basic skills are that you might think of when you think about the research that you do or the creative activity that you're involved in. I'll give you an example. One of our 2017 science SLAMers at UNL talked about extracting zebrafish brains using a pipette. And I'm thinking that would the world be a better place if everyone knew how to extract zebrafish brains using a pipette? I'm thinking no, probably not. But if you look deeper into what she did and think about the perseverance, the problem-solving ability that she gained by figuring out what was going wrong using the different mechanisms and methods, figuring out a better way to do it, that kind of perseverance and or problem-solving ability might really make the world a better place if everyone had it. So looking for some reflection on what you've learned through your research experience or your creative activity experience that you wish you could somehow, if you could magically impart that ability to everybody in the world, you would. And the world would be a better place for it. And I kind of expect that we might see some similar answers whether you're doing research in a STEM field, whether you're an artist in the fine arts, whether you're a humanist studying history, but I'm gonna be really fascinated and interested to see what you all come up with, what kinds of answers. And of course in your application, as well as in your SLAM talk itself, we want you to tell us a little bit about your project, your research, your creative activity, give us a sense of the content, but frame it as a story. So tell us a story, tell us a story about your research. Tell us how you developed this particular ability and skill and why you think it would help to improve the world if other people had it. And do it in a way that engages us in a narrative. So as always, we have some tips and tricks. You can watch videos of past SLAMers and I'm just excited to see what you all come up with. Application deadline is Monday, March 28th. Finalists, five of them will be chosen and announced on April 1st. And then the five finalists will present at the first ever student research day SLAM on April 13th. And in case the experience of participating in a first of its kind event like this isn't reward enough, I should mention that the winner of the SLAM, which will be voted upon by the audience, will earn $500 as well as bragging rights, of course. And all the other finalists will earn $100. So a little bit of bling to go with a nice SLAM in your CV. And it's a super fun time. The SLAM format is fantastic and this is gonna be bigger and better than any SLAM we've had on the UNL campus. So you wanna get in on the ground floor of this one. Make sure that you apply, encourage your friends and colleagues and for students to apply and we'll see you at SLAM.