Aniruddha Dutta wins the German Science Slam Championship 2018
Aniruddha Dutta, doctoral student in the group “Mechanism-based Alloy Design“ in the department “Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design”, has won the German Science Slam Championship 2018 last Saturday, 24th November, in Wiesbaden.
In the final, eight researchers from different disciplines competed against each other. Aniruddha Dutta received the loudest applause from the almost 5000 guests. The applause serves as the judgement criterion for the different slams. Dutta explained in his lecture "Stealing weight from Steel" how to make steel lighter. This knowledge is useful, for example, to construct lighter thus energy-saving automobiles. Dutta explained his scientific approach with the help of an Oreo (double biscuits with vanilla cream in-between). For Oreos and lighter steel, the right combination of hard phases (biscuit) and soft phases (cream) is essential for strain partitioning in multiphase steels.
Initially, Aniruddha Dutta started to participate at science slams aiming to develop his presentation skills. In 2015, he took part in the FameLab competition for the first time and presented a lecture of three minutes. In the same year he won his first Science Slam in Aachen.
The German Science Slam has been taking place since 2010. The aim of this competition is to present scientific content in a lively and informative way. The rules are simple: Each participant may talk for a maximum of ten minutes about their field of research. Anything that serves as an illustration is permitted, such as films, power point presentations or experimental set-ups. The audience decides on the winner by applauding or with a placard with a score. Whoever gets the loudest applause, wins.