All ORISE Ignite Off! Competition
Hosted by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the annual All ORISE Ignite Off! competition showcases the talents of interns from participating federal agencies and offices as they share their research through Ignite Talks. Each competitor has five minutes to present their project, using 20 picture-centric slides that automatically advance every 15 seconds. Through ORISE Learn, contestants have access to an ORISE professional development course that teaches the process for developing an Ignite talk.
2025 Competition
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Gabriela Olmedo
1st Place: Gabriela Olmedo, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, "Redesigning Small Fruit Packaging for a Better Quality and Longer Shelf Life" (video)
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Lila Branchaw
2nd Place: Lila Branchaw, U.S. Department of Energy’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, "Can Sawdust Strengthen Biocomposites?" (video)
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Peyton McCubbin
3rd Place: Peyton McCubbin, U.S. Department of Energy’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, "Pulling Batteries Out of Thin Air" (video)
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Sheetal Jha
Fan Favorite: Sheetal Jha, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, “Bacteriocins at Work for Safer Food" (video)
Watch the video recording of the 2025 All ORISE Ignite Off Final Viewing Event
Past Ignite Off! Competitions:
Postdoctoral fellow at U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center wins 2024 ORISE Ignite Off! competition
Jonathan Blutinger, Ph.D., an ORISE postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Army DEVCOM Soldier Center, was named the winner of the 2023 Ignite Off! competition. Read more about the 2024 winner and finalists.
Watch the video recording of the 2024 Ignite Off Final National Viewing Event
USDA-ARS fellow wins 2023 ORISE Ignite Off! competition
Amanda Fanelli de Souza, an ORISE postdoctoral fellow in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Research Participation Program, was named the winner of the 2023 Ignite Off! competition. Read more about the 2023 winner and finalists.
Watch the video recording of the 2023 Ignite Off Final National Viewing Event
First all-ORISE Ignite Off Competition names ORNL intern as its winner
Amish Mishra, an ORISE participant in the National Science Foundation's Mathematical Sciences Graduate Internship (NSF-MSGI) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), won the 2022 Ignite Off! competition. Read more about the 2022 winner and finalists.
Watch the video recording of the 2022 Ignite Off Final National Viewing Event
2021 Ignite Off! Competition Winner
Janet Teng, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Kristyn Johnson, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Other 2020 Ignite Off! finalists:
- Enakshi Saha | ANL – Bayesian Latent-Variable Modeling of COVID-19 Infection Rate
- Abdullah Kuziez | ANL – Accelerators for Carbon Ion Therapy
- Trevor McQueen | ORNL – Capturing Molecular Actions via Vitrification
- Tanner Stelmach | NETL – Chemical Looping Gasification (CLG)
- Jacob Sumner | ORNL – Protein Shape Reconstruction with Neutron Scattering and Computational Tools
Kaylee Cunningham, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Other 2019 Ignite Off! finalists:
- Benjamin Aronson | ANL – The Future of Metal Manufacturing
- Taylor Dennis | ORNL – The Search for Mirror Neutrons
- Carol Lin | ANL – Investigation of the Tribological Effects on the Surface Interaction of Wind Turbine Bearings
- Tayler Sundermann | ORNL – Robotic Laser Titanium Wire Big Area Additive Manufacturing
- Nadia Zaragoza | ANL – Materials Science and Nuclear Fuels