The inspiration behind the SIAM SLAM was sparked by a similar event held by the SIAM Student Chapter at the University of Manchester, who kindly invited us to come and watch. In our SIAM SLAM, nine contestants put their science communication skills to the test by presenting their research to an audience of over 40 spectators from across Germany and Europe. The catch? Our participants were allowed just three minutes to present their research in the most entertaining and informative way possible!

We heard fascinating talks on topics such as climate modelling, temporal multiscale simulations for multiphysics problems, and the winning presentation “Probability Theory is just Functional Analysis with Cumbersome Notation”. Thanks to funding from the interdisciplinary research center for scientific computing (IWR) at Heidelberg University, we were able to offer prizes for the top three presentations as decided by popular vote. Furthermore, we were able to gift a SIAM merch package to all speakers thanks to support from SIAM - without our enthusiastic speakers, the event could never have been such a success!

We continued the fun with a pub quiz, where our quiz-leader Carla tested our knowledge on topics ranging from the talks themselves to mathematics-themed facts about the host cities. Finally, the evening ended with an online gaming event, which gave us the chance to network across chapters and get to know each other better. All in all, the SIAM SLAM was not only a fun way to introduce audience members to current research, but it also fostered connections between early-career mathematicians throughout Europe. The event even sparked new collaborations between participants!

Thanks go to the SIAM Student Chapters of Aachen, Magdeburg, Potsdam and Manchester as well as the IWR at Heidelberg University and SIAM for their support.