Join the 2nd Annual SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SHARK TANK competition for aspiring researchers in nanotechnology!

Earn prizes and get your work covered by leading media outlets!

The Shark Tank competition is recruiting participants on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 5:30 pm in Birck 1001. All participants will be certified as “science storytellers” upon attending four evening workshops, receiving feedback by communications experts, and delivering their final pitch as a small group. Furthermore, the teams with the best submissions will present at the live-judged Shark Tank Competition on Thursday March 26, 2020 at 5:30 pm 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 can participate alone or as a team of up to 5 students and simply send us the title of your presentation that has the potential to excite a general audience about your research. Your team will attend a series of four evening training workshops in which you will have opportunities to learn from leading experts with multidisciplinary experience in storytelling techniques from both Purdue’s Polytechnic and the Brian Lamb School of Communication. The end product will be a 5-minute oral presentation which you will have a chance to give to your peers and, if selected as a finalist, at the Shark Tank competition. We will also help provide you any requested visual communication assistance from fellow students at Purdue, including graphic design, animation, modeling, etc. in order to make your presentation the best it can be.
The workshops will be held at the following times:

• Tuesday, February 18,     5:30-7:30 pm (Birck 1001)
• Tuesday, February 25,     5:30-7:30 pm (Birck 1001)
• Tuesday, March 3,           5:30-7:30 pm (Birck 1001)
• Tuesday, March 10,         5:30-7:30 pm (Birck 1001)

The final competition will be:

• Thursday, March 26,        5:30-7:30 pm in Burton Morgan 121

Please RSVP by Friday February 7 to Neil Dilley (ndilley@purdue.edu ) with the names of everyone in your group, title of your project and faculty advisor.

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 the Birck Center https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/birck/
About Dr. Shakouri https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/birck/directory/profile.php?resource_id=74115
About Dr. Matei - http://matei.org/ithink/about