Millennium Café

In the spirit of the Café, 45 students are competing for the top prize by pitching their research in two minutes or less.  Topics range from clean water, nanoscience, medicine, energy, materials, and much more.  This is a great opportunity to scout for new collaborations while enjoying a cup of coffee.  The competition starts at 10:00 in the 3^rd floor Café Commons of the MSC Bldg and will be setup like a poster session - this enables attendees to individually engage the competitors.  Please be mindful of the judges as they need to evaluate every competitor in a short period of time.  PPG has once again generously provided funding to enable this fantastic event.

Presenters: 45 students | Engineering, Science, Earth & Mineral Sciences, Agriculture, Medicine, …

As the mental and physical impact of chronic loneliness continues to impact the college campus, how can we form the warm connections so vital for health and happiness? This talk showcases the Four Mindsets needed for warm connections, the Three Fresh Goals of kind conversations, and the Six Pathways for better conversations. With 10 minutes of simple strategies, we'll never get lost starting or continuing meaningful conversations. 

Presenter: Heather Holleman  |  English  |  Schreyer Honors College

Like an umbrella on a rainy day, you should never leave home without a well-designed elevator pitch! But developing a concise message about what you do and why you do it can be a challenge. In this brief talk, I will discuss the origin and purpose of an elevator pitch, content and delivery strategies for engaging your audience, and elements to include for optimal pitch effectiveness.

Presenter: Marcy Milhomme  |  Communication Arts & Sciences

Over the last decade, I've collaborated with researchers to produce nearly 200 documentaries – ranging from short films to broadcast series – for TV, web, and science classrooms. Here I'll share my perspective on effective science storytelling, show how scientists can work with my team for Broader Impacts and outreach, and reveal a sneak preview of the latest Day’s Edge project: an all-new primetime science series premiering on PBS in July.

Presenter: Neil Losin  |  Biology  |  Day’s Edge Productions

While pain is a nearly universal human experience, its burden is not. I will describe how my lab is using the tools of cognitive neuroscience, psychology and anthropology to uncover the neurobiological and sociocultural mechanisms underlying ethnic, racial and gender disparities in pain. Our ultimate goal is to use our findings to inform and test interventions aimed at reducing pain disparities.

Presenter: Elizabeth Losin  |  Biobehavioral Health

We will discuss strategies and opportunities for building sustainable, durable bridges and interdisciplinary collaborations with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) in various research areas, with the goal of promoting diversity and inclusion in all our research practices. In particular, we will address ways to seed authentic collaborations between Penn State researchers and their MSI collaborators in mutually beneficial ways, including in the sharing of resources, expertise, and best practices to support underrepresented groups in building research capacity. Finally, we will share brief information on federally funded programs in this space.

Presenters: 
Camelia Kantor  |  Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
Zoubeida Ounaies  |  Materials Research Institute