Grad students, postdoc shine in series of brief talks

Ignite is a forum for thinkers and innovators to share their stories, and do it quickly. Each presenter gets 20 slides that advance automatically every 15 seconds, amounting to five minutes of succinct enlightenment.

More than 350 Ignite events have been held in cities all over the map. The first Ignite talks in upstate New York were held in April 2019 as part of Binghamton University’s Research Days. Eight graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher from a variety of fields told the story of their research and why it matters.

The inaugural event, organized by Robert Lawrence in the Office of Strategic Research Initiatives, featured:

• Mariama Coulibaly, a doctoral student in the College of Community and Public Affairs, speaking about community-based participatory action in the Congo
• Jayne Hoffman, a doctoral student in the College of Community and Public Affairs, presenting on access to higher education among Latino populations
• Postdoctoral fellow Jozef Dingemans from Binghamton’s department of biological sciences on antibiotic resistance in biofilm bacteria
• Chelsea Gibson, a doctoral student in history, on the history of U.S./Russia relations
• Stacy Ellenberg, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, on how smartphones are changing psychology
• Summer Bottini, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, on how instructional errors affect the learning process
• Rushui Fang, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering, speaking about using quantum cryptography to enhance security
• Kate Lanza, a doctoral student in behavioral neuroscience, speaking about improving treatments for Parkinson’s disease
• Ishika Chakrabarty, a doctoral student in systems science and industrial engineering, presenting on treating mental illness with mindfulness

The talks were recorded and are available to watch online via a YouTube playlist.