Tyler Andres-Bray
PhD Program in Biological Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences
Recipient of the 2023 Provost's Award for Best Virtual Oral Research Presentation

"I loved watching other people's presentations. There is so much amazing research going on in our community and I don’t often get a chance to experience it, so it was awesome to hear from other graduate students."

He also noted that presenting at the conference was a great way for graduate students to practice presenting their research, and a "relatively low-stress way to get experience" presenting before attending a field-specific national conference.

Hussein O. Badr, PhD '23
PhD Program in Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition & Poster Presenter

“It is very convenient for all graduate students to talk about their research with experts in their specialties at specific academic conferences, however, the real challenge has always been to communicate similarly with the general audience. The Drexel Emerging Graduate Scholars Conference comes as a wonderful opportunity for graduate students to interact with remarkably diverse groups from various backgrounds. It promotes research by allowing students to interact with the larger Drexel community by presenting their research in a simple and concise way. Students who attend DEGS also get to explore the landscape of other exciting projects in different fields and learn more about other areas of research happening around them. DEGS also presents an opportunity for graduate students to network, which is just as important as attending classes and conducting experiments in the lab.

My favorite part of DEGS 2023 was the poster session because it was so diverse! In less than two hours I got to chat with so many students from medicine, nursing, law, art, science, and engineering.”

Cynthia Klobodu, MBChB, MPH
PhD Program in Nutrition Sciences
College of Nursing and Health Professions
Recipient of the 2022 President's Award for Best Three Minute Thesis (3MT®)

"I decided to participate in the conference because I saw it as an opportunity to present in-person, having been restricted to only virtual presentations for the past two years due to COVID. I was seeking an in-person conference experience. I loved interacting with other presenters and learning about their interesting research. Moreover, I was finally able to meet face-to-face certain people that I had only met online. That made me really happy. I’d definitely recommend it to other graduate students. The wealth of experience to be gained from participating is worth it."

Benjamin Haslund-Gourley
MD/PhD Program in Microbiology & Immunology
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Professional Studies
College of Medicine
Recipient of the 2022 Provost's Award for Best Oral Research Presentation

"I was interested in the DEGS Conference because it offered the opportunity to share my recent work with peers, collect feedback on the project, meet other driven graduate students, and learn about different research being conducted at Drexel across multiple graduate programs.

Preparing and presenting an oral research talk certainly took some time. It was important to create clear figures and use accurate phrasing to get the story of this novel Lyme disease diagnostic across in the time allotted. With that said, I cherish the opportunity to speak in front of my peers. I came away from the talk excited to dive back into the research with fresh ideas.

I loved the poster presentations because it exposed me to such a diverse range of projects and methods. Listening to how graduate students solved the problems they encountered inspired me to approach my own research challenges from new perspectives. I would highly recommend that all graduate students attend the conference next year. The food, administration, venue, and poster presentations were 10/10 and yielded new contacts within the graduate programs."

Asia Sarycheva, PhD '21
Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Recipient of the 2018 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) People's Choice Award

"This opportunity gave me a lot of experience and confidence, as well as taught me how to explain research to people outside of my field for people with various backgrounds. It is surprisingly hard to fit your speech within 3 minutes- it is too long for a couple of sentences revealing the surface of your expertise but too short for detailed discussion about one’s research. It taught me how to deliver my thoughts clearly and keep the audience engaged. Another aspect that I gained is overcoming the fear of public speaking, which is affecting a lot of graduate students in STEM. This competition gave me confidence and really improved my professional communication skills.

I met a lot of people from different departments. This event truly unites Drexel as a whole enabling communication between students not only from different departments, but different campuses.

During the preparation some of the participants from last year (2017) as well as the DEGS team were guiding us through the process and offered tutorials and workshops. We had to practice a lot with other participants which was a bonding and rewarding experience. I enjoyed it a lot and will help it happen again next year!"

Sarah Gleeson, PhD '20
Materials Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Recipient of the 2018 Second Place Oral Research Presentation

"It definitely helped with public speaking – presenting to people outside my field meant that I had to think about how to be concise and engaging!

I met students and professors from outside of my field, as sessions are blends of very different topics.

This was a great experience! Most conferences I’ve attended have been very technical, and working on my DEGS presentation forced me to think about my research differently."