Grad Slam is a UC-wide public speaking competition and professional development opportunity in which graduate students describe their research or creative project in three minutes, with a maximum of three PowerPoint slides, to a non-specialist audience. Participating students are supported through public speaking workshops and feedback sessions, and progress through several preliminary and semi-final rounds. Contestants have the opportunity to win up to $5,000 at the UCR level, and another $7,000 at the UC-wide level of competition.

Graduate Division is proud to collaborate with the Center for Ideas and Society, UCR Palm Desert, the Culver Center of the Arts, and other campus and system partners in this annual event showcasing the groundbreaking contributions of our exceptional graduate students.

Grad Slam 2021: UCR will not be holding a campus Grad Slam in 2021. The 2020 Campus Champion, Eric Johns, will instead have an opportunity to compete in the UC-wide Grad Slam Final, to be held virtually this spring. He did not get a chance to compete at the system-wide level in 2020 as the UC-wide Final was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grad Slam 2020           Grad Slam 2019          Grad Slam 2018          Grad Slam 2017