On Wednesday, April 8, nine Berkeley graduate students delivered stellar three-minute talks showcasing their research at this year’s campuswide Grad Slam event, making the process of selecting winners very difficult indeed.
All nine semi-finalists should be very proud of the incredible work they did in creating, revising, and presenting their talks to a broad, public audience. This year, we were pleased to have both an in-person and remote audience, including viewers from across the state and nation, and even some international viewers. If you would like to watch the event, you can view the recording here.
Congratulations to our Berkeley Grad Slam 2026 winners!
Carla Bassil, Berkeley’s Grad Slam 2026 first-place winner
Carla Bassil’s presentation, Machine Learning Assisted Gas Sensor Chip for Food Safety Applications, took first place. As the Campus Grad Slam Champion, Carla Bassil will now move on to compete with campus winners from the other nine UC campuses on April 22, 2026, for prize money and the chance to take home the “Slammy.” She will also compete in the Ivy Plus Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in June.
Avinia Ismiyati, Berkeley’s Grad Slam 2026 second-place winner
Avinia Ismiyati’s talk, More Than Bad Posture: Using AI and Human Factors to Predict Work-Related Pain took second place.
Kavita Parekh, Berkeley’s Grad Slam 2026 People’s Choice Award winner
The People’s Choice Award, decided upon by the audience, went to Kavita Parekh for her presentation titled Beyond the Band-Aid: Rebuilding Muscle After Severe Injury.
We wish to thank our distinguished panel of judges, Fiona Doyle, Doy Charnsupharindr, Caroline Winnett, and also the many in-person and remote audience members who weighed in on the People’s Choice Award. We look forward to next year’s competition!
Interested in participating next year? Learn what it takes to join the competition.
This article was written by Jonathan Landeros-Cisneros, Professional Development Liaison and a Ph.D. candidate in the Berkeley School of Education.