Dear All, I encourage Birck students and researchers to participate at the Storytelling Workshop and Shark Tank Competition on Oct. 31st and Nov. 14th, respectively. This is organized in collaboration with Prof. Sorin Matei Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Professor at Brian Lamb School of Communication. If this is of interest, please RSVP by this Friday Oct. 26th, 2018. We will also have a Birck Research Display and Image Contest organized by Sasha Boltasseva, Dana Weinstein and Yong Chen. The deadline for submission is on Monday Dec. 10th, 2018. For more details about both events see below or contact Jaime Turner (jjturner@purdue.edu<mailto:jjturner@purdue.edu>). Best regards, Ali *********************************** (1) Join the SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SHARK TANK competition for aspiring researchers in nanotechnology! *** please RSVP by October 26th to Jaime Turner (jjturner@purdue.edu<mailto:jjturner@purdue.edu>) with your name(s), title of project and faculty advisor*** Earn prizes and get your work covered by leading media outlets! The Shark Tank competition recruits participants for a training workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 31st, 2018, at Birck 1001. All workshop participants will be certified as "science storytellers" upon completing and submitting a communication pitch about a group project. Furthermore, the submissions will be judged and the best of them will be presented at a live judging contest on Wednesday, Nov. 14th, 2018, at 3:30pm, in Burton Morgan 121. The judges are professional communicators, who will further coach the winners and advise them on how to place their stories in the media. What is the Shark Tank Competition? You just found out how to deliver drugs at the molecular level. You created a novel photonic device or quantum computer on a chip. You invented a new type of soil sensor for agriculture. You are the next successful researcher in nanotechnology. How do you let the world of investors, potential employers, or media that what you do should make them stop in their tracks and pay attention? The skill you need is that of a master storyteller. This is, however, more than the ability to crack a joke during a presentation. It goes beyond using more pictures and fewer words in your Powerpoint slides. It is about creating strong arguments. It is about violating expectations. It is about using numbers like levers, not bludgeons. It is about timing and flexibility in delivery. It is about appealing to people's sense of logos, pathos, and ethos; reason, feeling, and ethics can take you a long way. The Science Communication Shark Tank competition gives you a chance to learn and train these skills in the best possible way: by playing a real-life game. You will participate as a member of the team in a science storytelling seminar, will learn how to create a scientific story, and you will prepare a written and a spoken presentation, which will be judged for selection in a live, Shark Tank Competition. Run by a group of talented professional communicators, the competition will award prizes and, most important, will offer the participants a chance to work with one of the sharks to refine their story and release it to the general public through a specialized media campaign. What are the steps to participate in the Shark Tank Competition? To enroll in the competition you need to get "shark tank certified." You are expected to enroll in a training seminar, which will be organized on Wednesday, Oct. 31st, 2018, 8:30-11:30am at Birck 1001. The deadline for delivering the projects for judging is November 10, while the Shark Tank competition will be held on Nov. 14, 2018, 3:30-5pm at Burton Morgan 121. Top three winners will receive $300 /$200 /$100 cash rewards each. Who are the Sharks? Jessica Eise, professional communicator and author of both fiction and non-fiction works, is a doctoral candidate in the Brian Lamb School of Communication. She has a Master's in Journalism from New York University and has done extensive work abroad in media production, new media and journalism. She frequently writes for popular press, and her work has been featured in CNBC, Quartz, Thomson Reuters News Foundation and others. Her books include How to Feed the World and The Communication Scarcity in Agriculture. Stan Jastrzebski, the News Director of the public radio station WBBA. Stan Jastrzebski has spent a career in radio, with postings as News Director of NPR member stations WFSU in Tallahassee, Fla. and WFIU in Bloomington, Ind., and time as a reporter at WGN Radio in Chicago and WIBC Radio in Indianapolis. Stan holds a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Indiana Broadcasters Association. Abrar Hammoud, a Clinical Assistant Professor in Technology Leadership & Innovation, is co-lead of the Transdisciplinary Studies in Technology Program in the Purdue Polytechnic. Professor Hammoud is a Purdue graduate from the School of Communication and her research is about how processes of resilience are communicated through meaningful work. She teaches project and problem-based design studio classes that blend STEM and Humanities. She is a co-author of Effective Communication for STEM and co-facilitator of the Science Storytelling Seminar. Lisa Bosman, is the author of the volume "Teaching the entrepreneurial mindset to the engineers" and Assistant Professor in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. Lisa has a diverse combination of higher education teaching experience working in learning environments including Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), Community Colleges, and Universities (public and private institutions, teaching and research-oriented). In addition, she worked for several years as a manufacturing engineer for world-class companies including Harley-Davidson Motor Company, John Deere, and Oshkosh Truck. Why did we organize the Communication Shark Tank Competition? This is a special event, sponsored by the Office of the Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts and the Birck Nanotechnology Center. Dr. Sorin Adam Matei, the Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Communication and Dr. Ali Shakouri, the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of the Birck Center, have created this program as a means to broaden and diversify the learning experiences of STEM students at Purdue and to teach them the necessary skills to become master communicators and academic or business leaders. About Dr. Matei - http://matei.org/ithink/about ******************************************** ******************************************** (2) Birck Nanotechnology Center Research Display and Image Contest *** Deadline for submission Dec. 10th, 2018 *** We are looking for research displays and new images highlighting activities at the Birck Nanotechnology Center. This will be used in Purdue's 150th Anniversary Event "Conference of the Future" in Fall 2019 and will be displayed at Birck Atrium and through brochures and social media. We know that many of you create beautiful images in your labs, cleanroom and simulation every day. Send us the most eye-catching figures from your work for a chance to gain higher visibility. Also research samples or other demonstrations that can highlight latest advances in your groups will be placed in the display at the Birck Atrium. You can see some examples in the current displays. Top three winners for best images and top three research displays will receive $300 /$200 /$100 cash rewards each. Winners may also be invited to write a Newsletter article about the work behind the research. Contest Rules for Figures and/or Research Displays: * Figures to be submitted electronically in TIFF, JPEG, or PDF format (300dpi High resolution) * Research samples should fit in the Birck Atrium Display * Must be related to Birck research * May submit more than one entry Please email your art input to Jaime Turner (jjturner@purdue.edu<mailto:jjturner@purdue.edu>). Jaime can also coordinate the display in Birck Atrium. Deadline for submission: December 10th, 2018. Winners will be announced during Birck Holliday Event Sasha Boltasseva, Dana Weinstein or Yong Chen. *******************