新澳门六合彩内幕信息

鈥楴ew Hot Air鈥 Is a Grad Slam Dunk

Alice Dien Uses Little Air to Explain Her Research

News
Woman holds hands to mouth, expressing surprise
Fellow Grad Slam contestants applaud as Alice Dien makes her way to the front of the room to accept the first-place prize: $2,500. (Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

Quick Summary

  • Ph.D. student pitches sustainable way of drying food
  • See all Grad Slam results, including People鈥檚 Choice
  • Next up: Dien represents 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis in 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Grad Slam

Watch the complete program above. Alice Dien鈥檚 winning presentation comes on at the 37:30 mark.


Photography by Gregory Urquiaga/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis

Biological systems engineering Ph.D. student Alice Dien won the 2022 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Grad Slam with her 2-minute, 54-second presentation on her research into a new, sustainable way of drying food, 鈥淐ooling Down With the New Hot Air: The Future of Drying in Agriculture.鈥

新澳门六合彩内幕信息 GRAD SLAM

Alice Dien will go up against the winners from the other nine 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 campuses, Friday, May 6, time to be announced.

Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies, as master of ceremonies, opened the program with an explanation: 鈥淲hat we鈥檝e done here is challenge graduate students to take literally thousands of hours of research and compress them into three minutes ... and to make it accessible to a nonspecialist audience.鈥

Thirty-seven master鈥檚 and Ph.D. students entered the campus Grad Slam by submitting video-recorded presentations (three minutes or less with no more than one slide). Volunteer faculty and staff judges reviewed the recordings in a qualifying round, narrowing the field to 10 for the campus final, held Wednesday (April 6) in Walker Hall, home of the new Graduate Center.

Six new judges chose all the winners except one, the People's Choice, decided by the audience of approximately 175 people (in person and online).

Woman speaks to audience
Ph.D. student Alice Dien explains her research into a new, sustainable way of drying food.

We can relate

Dien started with a question no doubt on a lot of people鈥檚 minds: 鈥淲ho else was shocked by the price of their energy bill in January? At first I thought I had left the oven on for a week or something!

鈥淏ut then I found out that natural gas prices have almost doubled since last year. Great. First it was the gasoline, now it鈥檚 the natural gas. Do you know what鈥檚 next? Food.鈥

Dien studies energy use in making food, specifically, she said, one of the most energy-intensive processes: drying.

The desiccant solution

鈥淚f you had a cup of coffee this morning, or if you鈥檝e ever had almonds, or walnuts, or even just rice, you can thank drying,鈥 Dien said. 鈥淲ithout it, all these products would get spoiled within one week.鈥

Female Grad Slam contestant, after her presentation, chats with man at podium,
Having completed her presentation (which included the slide of silica gel packets seen behind her), Dien chats with the emcee, Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies, in Walker Hall.

She then showed a slide of packets of silica gel, a desiccant, or drying agent, often packaged with food and other products (with the warning 鈥渄o not eat鈥) 鈥 explaining she is designing a system that uses desiccants to dry food cheaper and with less harm to the environment.

No drying with heat, no burning natural gas to make the heat, she said. Instead, she is drying food with what she calls, in the title of her presentation, 鈥渢he new hot air,鈥 which is dry air made from desiccants and fans, and powering the fans with electricity generated from less carbon intensive fuels or, better yet, renewable energy like solar.

What Can I Do About Climate Change? 鈥戔 Kat Kerlin, Strategic Communications鈥 environmental science writer, blogs about Alice Dien鈥檚 winning Grad Slam presentation.

Dien not only took first place but also earned the Public Impact Prize, given by the Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement, a Grad Slam sponsor. In addition, she earned a 鈥淕lobal Education for All鈥 designation from Global Affairs, recognizing the global impact of her project.

Other sponsors: Office of Research and Graduate Studies GradPathways Institute for Professional Development.

The complete results

  • 1st place ($2,500) and Public Impact Prize 鈥 Alice Dien, M.S., Ph.D student in biological systems engineering, College of Engineering, for 鈥淐ooling Down With the New Hot Air: The Future of Drying in Agriculture鈥 (Global Education for All)
  • 2nd place ($1,500) 鈥 Savannah Free, Ph.D. student in integrative genetics and genomics, College of Biological Sciences, for 鈥淧artners in Crime: Tumor Cells and Platelets鈥
  • 3rd place ($750) 鈥 Paige Kouba, M.S., Ph.D. candidate in ecology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, for 鈥淐limate Change Time Machine: Sending Trees 50 Years Into the Future鈥 (Global Education for All)
  • People鈥檚 Choice ($500) 鈥 Andrea Michelle Guggenbickler, M.P.H., Ph.D. student in public health, School of Medicine, for 鈥淟et鈥檚 Talk About Sex ... Education鈥
Man gestures during presentation, with drawing of reptiles behind him, on a slide
Benjamin Faulkner discusses 鈥淭he Salad Days of Reptiles.鈥

The other competitors:

  • Heather Barr, Ph.D. student in public health sciences, School of Medicine 鈥 鈥淭he Impact of Pets on the Feelings of Loneliness: Can You Pet Yourself Happy?鈥
  • Benjamin Faulkner, Ph.D. student in geology, College of Letters and Science 鈥 鈥淭he Salad Days of Reptiles.鈥
  • Lindsey Felth, Ph.D. candidate in pharmacology and toxicology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 鈥 鈥淗ow Do We Make Opioids Safer?鈥
  • Lo-Wei Lin, M.S., Ph.D. candidate in pharmacology and toxicology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 鈥 鈥淟ook Out! The Smoky Orange Sky Is Harmful to Your Skin鈥
  • William Turner IV,  Ph.D. student in atmospheric science, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 鈥 鈥淓l Nino and the Transatlantic Slave Trade鈥 (Global Education for All)
  • Jiahan Zou, M.S., Ph.D. candidate in biological systems engineering, College of Engineering 鈥 鈥淣ovel Cooling Media: Cooler Than Ice鈥 (Global Education for All)
Grad Slam contestants, posed
Jean-Pierre Delplanque, vice provost and dean of Graduate Studies, center, flanked by all of the Grad Slam competitors, from left: Lo-Wei Lin, Benjamin Faulkner, William Turner IV, Andrea Michelle Guggenbickler, Heather Barr, Alice Dien, Lindsey Felth, Jiahan Zou, Paige Kouba and Savannah Free.

JUDGES FOR THE CAMPUS FINAL

Woman listens to presentation, as a judge
  • Mary Croughan (pictured), 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis provost and executive vice chancellor
  • Andrea Flores 鈥10, anchor-reporter, KCRA 3 Television
  • Dawnt茅 Early 鈥05, M.S. '08, Ph.D. 鈥11, president and CEO, United Way California Capital Region
  • Sarah McCullough, Ph.D. 鈥13, associate director, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Feminist Research Institute
  • Stacey Muse, director of engagement, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Public Scholarship and Engagement
  • Rinki Sethi 鈥04, vice president and chief information security officer, Bill.com

 

Media Resources

Dateline Staff: Dave Jones, editor, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu; Cody Kitaura, News and Media Relations specialist, 530-752-1932, kitaura@ucdavis.edu.

Primary Category

Secondary Categories

Dateline Driven by Curiosity Student Life

Tags