On the occasion of the  “German Weeks” from 17 April to 5 May 2012, the Liaison Office of Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with Technische Universität Berlin, and through financial support of Deutsches Wissenschaftszentrum Kairo (DWZ), organized on 24 April the “First Berlin Science Slam in Cairo” at DAAD. Four doctoral candidates from different Graduate Schools in Berlin presented their research in an entertaining and understandable way. The event was moderated by Dr. Florian Kohstall, director of the Liaison Office of Freie Universität.

Science Slams have become very popular in Germany to promote the career of young scientists outside of classrooms and laboratories. Each presenter had ten minutes to explain his or her research and used many means, including Power Point Presentations, pictures of friends, or asked a volunteer from the audience to come on stage. BMS student Ágnes Cseh, who had already won the BMS Math Slam at the BMS Days, explained stable marriages with the help of graph theory.

More than 130 participants attended the 1. Berlin Science Slam in Cairo. The audience was the jury that judged the presentations on content, clarity and entertainment. Four professors commented on the presentations as well. All presentations were of such high quality that a clear result could not be determined by the first vote. Only in the second vote Ágnes with her lecture on a stable marriage won the portable shisha. At the reception in the garden competitors and participants had time to talk about their research.

Still thrilled by her trip to Cairo at the end of April Agnes summarizes: "It was a fascinating experience to meet so many enthusiastic young researchers from Egypt. At the beginning I worried how they will react on my topic, but after the first seconds I realized that Mathematics and fun can build bridges between different cultures."

More details: http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/cairo/veranstaltungen/Science_Slam/index.html