GREEN BAY—Five UW-Green Bay student researchers were recognized for their outstanding research communication skills in the WiSys Quick Pitch @ UW-Green Bay on April 26.

The student "pitch" competition challenges UW System students to consider the impact of their research and effectively communicate it to the public. Participants have three minutes to impress a panel of judges with their pitch.

Senior Thomas Miller took the first-place prize of $300 for the presentation “The Relationship Between Sports Fan Identification and Attitudes Regarding Gender and Sexuality.”

Miller’s faculty advisor was UW-Green Bay Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Elif Ikizer.

The win gives Miller the opportunity to represent UW-Green Bay in the WiSys Quick Pitch State Finals during the WiSys SPARK Symposium at UW Oshkosh, Aug. 6-8.

SECOND PLACE

Two presentations took second place and $125 prizes during the competition.

Graduate students Brinley Kowalkowski, Simran Challana and Emily Brosig were one of the second place winners with the presentation “The Effects of COVID-19 on College Students: Post-Vaccine Era.” Their faculty advisor was UW-Green Bay Assistant Professor of Management Dr. Dianne Murphy.

The other second place winner was graduate student Diep Nghiem with the presentation “AI-based Virtual Personal Assistant – Human Interaction and Trust Repair." Nghiem’s faculty advisor was UW-Green Bay Professor of Business Dr. Gaurav Bansal.

In order to participate in WiSys Quick Pitch, students must complete a training and mentorship session with WiSys and campus leaders. These sessions help students craft their presentation and instill confidence.

All participating students receive the WiSys Research Communication badge to denote their newly developed skill. The digital credential may be added to the students’ resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

The judges for this competition were:

• Dr. Michael Alexander, Chancellor, UW-Green Bay 
• Courtney Sherman, Associate Provost, UW-Green Bay
• Lisa Jossart, Business Retention and Expansion Manager, Greater Green Bay Chamber

PROGRAM HISTORY

As a nonprofit organization supporting research, innovation and entrepreneurship at Wisconsin’s regional public universities, WiSys set out to develop a program to incentivize and train student researchers to share their work to a lay audience including the public, mentors and policymakers.

WiSys first piloted the program at UW-Eau Claire in 2015. Since then, the program has been expanded to 10 other UW System institutions. The winners from the institutional competitions compete at the statewide finals held at WiSys’ annual summer symposium. Through the program, more than 80 students receive research communication training and experience each year. Nearly 500 UW System student researchers have participated since 2015.

The program’s objectives include:

• Encouraging student researchers to recognize the value of their work.
• Providing students tools for effectively communicating their research to the public without jargon.
• Highlighting the depth and breadth of student research taking place at public universities.
• Promoting information sharing to create new opportunities or collaborations.
• Celebrating student work and accomplishments.

For more information about the WiSys Quick Pitch Program, visit wisys.org/quickpitch.

WiSys is a nonprofit organization that works with faculty, staff, students and alumni of the UW System to facilitate cutting-edge research programs, develop and commercialize discoveries and foster a spirit of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking across the state.