This past week I had the opportunity to present at my first official conference: Summer Biomechanics, Biomaterials, and Biotransport Conference (or SB3C to us insiders). This conference is put on every year by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Bioengineering Division (ASME BED) and anyone who is anyone in biomechanics attends. Unfortunately it wasn’t in Vail Colorado as planned, but we discovered that virtual conferences can be fun as well!
Instead of in-person poster sessions, the conference had hundreds of pre-recorded lightning talks to watch at your leisure. There was also real-time presentations and lectures. I had a blast watching all the Ph.D. student competition presentations! There were also award lectures that were given by established academics in the field on their research. However, one professor gave up her slot and instead gave a presentation on racism in academia and how we could potentially address it. This was definitely one of the coolest things that happened at the conference.
I recorded a lightning talk for the presentation using Zoom so that people could see a miniature me in the screen. However, since only my shoulders and up were visible I rocked the video-interview look with a blazer and gym shorts. Of course, I did not just record one take of the video and was done; it was my first presentation and it had to be perfect! I must have recorded at least fifteen attempts at the presentation, some only lasting a few seconds before I burst into laughter. The presentation attempts would make a great blooper reel. All in all, I was really excited and slightly nervous to give the presentation, even if it was alone in my room to a camera. Then, when the conference occurred I was able to see how many people watched my talk, which was nerve-wracking to say the least. But I am happy to announce that multiple people watched my talk and I lived to tell another day.
SB3C also had some quite fun aspects to it. Friday night was student night, where the Student Leadership Committee for ASME BED met and there was trivia following. At the SLC meeting we voted on officer positions for the upcoming year, and I lost on the position of Social Media chair to the incumbent. I may have lost, but I was pleased that I even made it on the ballot. Trivia night was surely a highlight of the conference for me. We randomly got assigned to teams via Zoom and I ended up in an all-girls team with three graduate students. The questions were challenging and ranged from equine-related to candy to celebrities, but our team knocked it out of the park and won by multiple points. Overall, I would say virtual conferences can be quite interesting and the best part is that you can watch talks in your pajamas instead of in a suit!
Researching with One Ear Closed 