Last Tuesday, November 12, 2024, First-Year Innovation & Research Experience (FIRE) Semester 3 students and Peer Research Mentors had the exciting opportunity to pitch their research in the Pitch Perfect Research Competition. The prize? A first-place trophy with flame embellishments to display in their streams for the upcoming year.
This year teams share many great pitches ranging from a lack of internet infrastructure in the Philippines to the impact a walkable city has on its inhabitants. With just 90 seconds to pitch their research, all eight teams did a great job explaining their research succinctly.
Attendees voted for the pitches that they believed were clear, concise, informative, and creatively presented. In third place from FIRE Global Development & Design (GDD) was the presentation “Saving the Environment Through Walkability.” Two teams tied for second place: “The Truth About Pulse Oximeters” presented by students from FIRE Computing & Society (CS) and “Task-Sharing Strategies to Scale Mental Health Interventions in Regions Rebuilding from Conflict” presented by students from GDD.
In first place was Gene Silencing’s FIRE Semester 3 student Sienna who presented her project on “Early Treatment for Inherited Diseases via Gene Silencing.” As winners of the 2024 Pitch Perfect Competition, Gene Silencing (GS) students will display their FIRE Pitch Perfect Trophy for the next year in their lab. However, GS students will have to defend their trophy next year when teams from other FIRE Streams compete to win the competition and claim the trophy for their stream.
Attending this event as a FIRE Semester 1 student, I was pleasantly surprised by the range of topics presented across just one stream. There was even a presentation from the stream I will be joining in the spring; it was a wonderful experience to see an example of a project I could work on in the next semester.
To learn more about the FIRE Pitch Perfect Competition and how FIRE Students prepared this year, check out the FIRE Pitch Perfect event description here.