Q1. What is your academic and research background?
A1. I am a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. My research is in the field of mechanobiology and cellular signaling. We study the mechanistic regulation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and the role of nuclear epigenetics in modulating this process in pathological contexts of cancer and fibrosis.
Q2. Why did you consider participating in the LSS?
A2. I did not get a chance to participate and present my work in any in-person conferences due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so when I saw this opportunity of presenting in person in front of a real audience, I decided to participate in LSS. I believed that presenting in-person will help improve my confidence in public speaking and would also provide me with constructive feedback about my work from a diverse set of audience.
Q3. What talk/presentation formats did you participate in? Did you have prior public
A3. My abstract was accepted for an oral presentation. In addition, I participated in the 3-min elevator pitch competition. Due to the pandemic, majorly, I was presenting over Zoom, but I did have my qualifying exam in person. So, I can say, I had prior experience presenting in the format of the oral presentation.
Q4. How did LSS participation impact your science communication skills?
A4. Even though the members of the audience were from Life Sciences fields, it’s always a challenge to present your research so that everyone understands the key takeaways and have something they can remember your research with. I learned how to use less jargon words and describe my problem statement in simple terms. After my talk, I interacted with few of the audience members to get additional feedback on how to get better in my delivery of speech. The poster session was particularly helpful as I got to learn a lot more diverse life science research and also to observe on how the poster presenters give a perfect pitch to engage the audience.
Q5. What advice would you give someone who is going to present at the LSS?
A5. Just be calm and free. There is nothing to stress about as it’s a student-run event aimed for you to gain confidence in yourself and your research. Try to practice your talk or poster and be open to all kinds of feedback that you get. Presenting at LSS will help you in improving your communication skills and to better explain your research to other researchers.
Q6. What did you enjoy about your time during the LSS? Was there anything you didn’t enjoy/wish was done differently?
A6. The obvious part I enjoyed the most was presenting to a real audience instead of a virtual setting. The event was perfect, with nothing needed to be done differently.
Contact information for Chinmay Sankhe
Email: css313@psu.edu
Linked in: linkedin.com/in/chinmay-sankhe-4b7140b0