 Hey everyone, Jocelyn here. I'm UNL's Research Impact Coordinator and host of the annual Student Research Days Slam. And I am delighted to invite you all to participate in the 2023 edition of the Slam, which is happening on Friday, March 31st during, you guessed it, Student Research Days. So I want to give you a little bit more information about what the Slam is and what we're inviting you to do. But first, story time. As a first grader, I became obsessed with tangrams. Now if you have not experienced the joy and wonder of tangrams in your life, go immediately to a Google near you and search it and find it and love it. Tangrams, if you're not familiar, are a set of puzzles, geometric puzzles, where you start out with certain basic shapes, different kinds of triangles and squares usually. And then you're given a more complex shape that you need to create using those basic shapes. So you rearrange the smaller pieces to create a whole range of more complex shapes. And this blew my little mind as a first grader, the idea that these same basic elements could be recombined in different ways to yield surprising and complex and exciting results was amazing to me. It was magical. I got the same feeling years later in algebra, believe it or not, when you may have experienced this feeling yourself. It's so satisfying and delightful when you'd have a complex algebraic expression and you'd realize that all these different terms cancel and, you know, somewhere in the numerator, somewhere in the denominator, you could cancel out factors and then you'd be left with something delightfully simple, like one or something like that for your answer. So it was amazing to just see this simplicity and order emerge out of the chaos. So for me, that's what math has always been about is that higher order that that unity emerging from the chaotic complexity of disparate elements in reality. And that's what just set my little first grade heart a thump in when we did tan grams. That's what I loved about algebra. That's what I still love about math today. It reminds me of the Willough Cather quote from from my Antenna that is happiness to be dissolved in something complete and great. And I experienced that when I do math. You might call it Allie Ward, the podcast host, she hosts the oligies podcast has called it a feeling of glitter in your stomach and that feeling of finding unity and simplicity amid chaos and confusion gives me that glitter in my stomach. That's why I've always loved math. But enough about me. I want to know what makes you feel glitter in your stomach. And that is the question that we're asking for this year's student research days slam. What is it about your research or creative activity that gives you life that makes you feel that glitter in your stomach kind of feeling and what excites you exhilarates you? What are the moments, the experiences, the aspects of your work that bring you those those those peak experiences, if you will. So the format for this slam is a five minute presentation. And usually it's a little bit unconventional. It's not your standard research talk. The audience is going to consist of your peers and and other students and staff and faculty at UNL who are not in your discipline. They are not an expert in what you're an expert in. So as much as possible, we would love you to strive not just to explain your work, but to really evoke for your audience that feeling that thrill of the excitement of doing it whatever aspect of it is that just sparks joy, if you want to say in a Marie Kondo-esque fashion, really try to spark that joy in your audience as well to give them a little insight into why you love what you do. So a winner will be decided by the audience. And before we get to that point, of course, we got to choose our finalists. So that's what this Flipgrid portal is all about. What we want you to do is upload a 90 second video trailer of what your slam talk would look like. So if you think about a movie trailer, it doesn't give away the whole plot. But it does give you the rough outlines and it peaks your interest, it peaks your curiosity. And so that's what we're looking for in your video application. You can submit it here on Flipgrid. Applications are due March 15th, 11.59 p.m. And we will announce the finalists on March 20th. The slam is on March 31st. And so we'll select five finalists from the applicants. Anyone from any discipline, undergraduate or graduate student is welcome to apply. And then the five finalists will all earn a cash prize. The winner will win a $500 prize, and the other four finalists will each receive $100. So not too bad. You could buy some glitter with that, although I do not recommend eating the glitter. Glitter in your stomach, totally a figurative metaphorical expression. Actual glitter in your stomach, bad thing. But you could buy lots of things with $100 or $500 to help support your joy as a researcher or a creator and as a human. And of course, the joy of presenting your work in such a convivial and supportive environment is reward as well. So I would love to hear your stories. Please share them here on Flipgrid. And please attend the Student Research Day slam on March 31st. I can't wait to see you there.