Engineer Named 2026 UC Davis Grad Slam Champion
Fourth-year Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate Eden Winslow won first place at the UC Davis Grad Slam Semi-Final round on Friday, April 3, 2026. Her winning presentation "Born Without a Hand: Changing the Narrative of Children's Prostheses" earned her a $5,000 first prize.
Winslow's presentation and research examined how children born without a hand use the muscles in their arms, with the aim of showing that they're capable of using advanced prostheses.
At Grad Slam, Winslow began her presentation by asking everyone to wiggle their fingers along with performing other hand exercises. She went on to say, "What most of you did with very little thought is actually incredibly complex from an engineering, neuroscience, and prosthetics perspective." Winslow's work addresses the historically understudied question of if a child can use a prosthesis for something that was never developed. Within Winslow's research, the ability to show that these children have the innate capacity to use these devices already changes the previous narrative that they were incapable of doing so.
"When thinking about disabilities, it's a good reminder not to take our own abilities for granted, but also amazing to see how resilient humans are in the face of differences or adversity," said Winslow.
Because Winslow's work is taking her to Japan for a conference in late April and she is unable to participate in the UC Grad Slam finals competition, second place winner Jack Goon will be representing UC Davis in Sacramento on April 22. You can livestream the UC Grad Slam event to cheer on Jack.
