SJSU Grad Slam
And the 2023 winners are...

First Place SJSU & CSU-wide Grad Slam
Jaedyn L. Rollins
Biological Sciences, Systems Physiology, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "The RhD Locus: A Safe Solution for Gene Editing"

Second Place
Hoang-Vi Vu
Biological Sciences, M.S.
Title of Presentation:"Assessing the Effects of a Molecule on Chemotherapy Induced
Peripheral Neuropathy"

Audience Choice Winner
Peace Lu
Speech Language Pathology, M.S.
Title of Presentation:"Rethinking Stuttering Diagnosis Criteria for Bilingual Children"
Meet the SJSU Grad Slam 2023 Finalists

Amanbeer Singh Khanduja
Artificial Intelligence, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "The Future is Red"

Ashly Joseph
Computer Engineering, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Li-Fi – Wi-Fi Heterogeneous Network: Implementation and Challenges"

Chloë Angst
Applied Anthropology, M.A.
Title of Presentation: "Taphonomy and Homelessness in San José, California"

David Poirier
Masters in Business Administration
Title of Presentation: "Fighting Student Poverty with Professional Mentorship"

Diana Di Huang
Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership, (Ed.D.)
Title of Presentation: "A New and Empowering Asian American Parent’s Parenting Model"

Hoang-Vi Vu
Biological Sciences, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Assessing the Effects of a Molecule on Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy"

Jaedyn L. Rollins
Biological Sciences, Systems Physiology, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "The RhD Locus: A Safe Solution for Gene Editing"

John Cooper
Statistics, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Few-Shot Learning for Fast-Acquisition, High-Resolution Microscopy"

Padmaja Kota Iyer
Environmental Studies, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Who Should Decide Where Lithium Is Mined?"

Peace Lu
Speech Language Pathology, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Rethinking Stuttering Diagnosis Criteria for Bilingual Children"
Meet the 2023 Grad Slam Judges and Emcee

Stefan Frazier
Judge
Stefan Frazier is Professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Language Development
at SJSU. An 18-year veteran of the university, he has promoted student success and
celebration whenever possible, especially in his role as Chair of the SJSU Academic
Senate (2017-2019). He is a long-time educator of English as a second language and
a trainer of ESL teachers. Above all, he is interested in how people display their
individuality and creativity, whether via language or through the arts, sciences,
or education.

Dr. David Kosmeyer
Judge
Dr. David Korsmeyer is the deputy center director for Research and Technology at NASA's Ames Research
Center in California's Silicon Valley, and is responsible for the overall scope and
direction of the center’s operations and facilities. He also manages the NASA Research
Park – co-located at Moffett Field – which hosts academic, industry, and other government
organizations. He is one of four senior center leaders guiding and managing NASA’s
virtual institutes based at Ames, competitive internal research and development projects,
and external research collaborations.

Meenakshi Goel
Judge
Meenakshi Goel is a Principal Scientific Researcher in the Department of Small Molecule Pharmaceutical
Sciences at Genentech, a member of Roche Pharmaceuticals, a leading international
biotechnology company. As an analytical chemist, she supports research, development,
and clinical manufacturing of best-in-class therapeutics using state-of-the-art analytical
techniques like High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography, High-Resolution
Mass Spectrometry, Supercritical fluid chromatography, multi-dimensional liquid chromatography
and more.

Kate Forrest
Judge
Kate Forrest is a current student at SJSU, studying for her Master’s degree in Meteorology and
Climate Science. She was our first place winner at last year’s Grad Slam competition,
and represented SJSU at the Western Association of Graduate Schools Grad Slam a few
weeks ago. You may have seen her winning presentation today in the pre-show reel.
She is a graduate assistant at SJSU’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center.
Kate’s passion for fire weather was ignited after following California’s 2020 wildfire
season and has since taken an interest in fire weather forecasting. In exciting news,
she has just accepted a meteorologist position at the National Weather Service in
Sacramento upon graduation this spring.

Holt Hanley
Emcee
Growing up as a surfer in Northern California, weather has always been a big part
of Holt’s life. When he was 14, he decided it was his goal to become a broadcast meteorologist.
He began working toward this goal by receiving a degree in Earth Science from Cal
Poly. After the "Northern California firestorm" in 2017, he decided to fine-tune his
focus toward the intersection of weather and wildfire, He saw that wildfire was becoming
a huge problem in California, and hoped to one day be part of the solution. Holt earned
his Master’s in Meteorology at San Jose State University, working in the Fire Weather
Research Laboratory. His thesis combined machine learning and wildfire prediction.
Meet the SJSU Grad Slam 2023 Semi-Finalists

Abhishek Vaid
Computer Science, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Deep learning neural machine translation conversational agent"

Aditi Agrawal
Computer Science, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Deep Learning Neural Machine Translation Conversational Agent"

Afroz Shaukat Inamdar
Software Engineering, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "CodEval: Automated Grading Tool for Programming Assignment"

Antonio Cervantes
Mechanical Engineering, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "First Steps Towards Physics-based Firebrand Shower Models"

Ayush Wattal
Data Analytics, M.S.
Title of Presenation: "Rooftop Solar Panel & Energy Estimation"

David Benterou
Environmental Studies, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Home Wildfire Mitigation: Does Safety Impact California Plants?"

Gabby Acevedo Munares
Biomedical Engineering, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "A Novel Method for Assessing Biomaterials Used in Open Heart Surgery"

Orissa Smith-Goshen
Occupational Therapy, Ph.D.
Title of Presentation: "Habits, Perspectives, and Emotional Outlooks: An Exploration of how First-Year University
Students in Occupational Therapy Navigate an Evolving Educational Landscape"

Sachin Kumar Srinivasa Murthy
Data Analytics, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Enhancing Job Seekers' Adaptability to Dynamic Skill Demand Shifts: A Novel Information
System Design beyond Traditional Job Descriptions"

Sarvesh Upadhye
Software Engineering, M.S.
Title of Presentation: "Custom Kubernetes Autoscaler"

Tam Tran
Urban Planning, MUP
Title of Presentation: "The Challenges When Buying Food Without Cars"
What is Grad Slam?
Past Grad Slam Participant Testimonials
And the 2022 Winners are...

First Place
Kate Forrest
Meteorology, MS
Title of Presentation - "Fire Tornadoes: The Unicorns of Fire Weather"
Watch Kate's Presentation

Second Place
Nathaniel Pergamit
Music, MM
Title of Presentation - "Buried Treasure in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park"
Watch Nate's Presentation

Audience Choice
Punithavathi Sundaramurthy
Bioinformatics, MS
Title of Presentation - "A Computational Approach to Identify Complex DNA Binding
Sites to Study Gene Regulation"
Watch Punit's Presentation
Past Grad Slam Winners
Past Grad Slam Recordings