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Judging · May 8, 2025 · Princeton, NJ

Princeton
Research Day

I judged the 10th annual Princeton Research Day — a day of undergraduate and graduate work laid out across the Frist Campus Center, from targeted drug delivery to a quantitative reading of Shakespeare. Here's how the day looked.

A Princeton Research Day name card reading “Shalvi Singh” above a purple ribbon lettered JUDGE, with the event's 10 Years logo.
The credential that made it official.
Act I

Getting there

A May morning in Princeton — peak spring, bikes chained to every rack, the campus doing its best impression of a brochure.

Bike racks and a leafy campus street under a bright blue sky with scattered clouds.
Cutting across campus on the way in.
A large tree shading a campus path, an orange Princeton banner on a lamppost.
Campus in May.
A white colonnaded stone building across an intersection under a big cloud-filled sky.
The long way round.
A tree-lined walking path stretching into the distance under blue sky.
Quiet before the crowd.
The collegiate-gothic entrance of Frist Campus Center, with carved stone figures flanking the archway.
Frist Campus Center — the day's home base.
Act II

Ten years in

Princeton Research Day turned ten this year. Orange-and-blue balloons, a Climate Action theme, and a welcome desk that funneled a few hundred people onto one very full floor.

Shalvi standing beside a large sign reading “10 — Princeton Research Day, Celebrating 10 years” in an arched stone hallway.
Ten years of Research Day.
A staircase descending toward a red “10 Years — Climate Action” banner with a crowd below.
Down to the main floor — this year's Climate Action theme.
Shalvi under a “Welcome Desk” sign beside a QuickCase poster in a skylit atrium.
Welcome desk.
Shalvi in front of giant gold foil balloon letters spelling PRD, flanked by orange and teal balloon columns.
P-R-D.
Shalvi at a blue-draped table under a balloon arch with gold stars spelling PRD.
The judges' table.
Act III

Judging the floor

The actual work: a poster garden to walk, a ballot to fill, and a run of undergraduate projects that jumped from targeted drug delivery to magnetically switched proteins to a quantitative reading of Shakespeare — all before lunch.

Shalvi beside a screen showing a numbered floor map of the poster garden.
Learning the poster-garden map before rounds start.
Shalvi next to poster 26, titled “‘Hijacking’ cystine transporters for targeted drug delivery.”
Poster 26 — hijacking cystine transporters for targeted drug delivery.
Shalvi next to poster 74, titled “Magnetogenetics: Controlling Protein Activity with Magnetic Fields.”
Poster 74 — controlling protein activity with magnetic fields.
Shalvi beside poster 15, “Noble or Not: A Quantitative Approach to Analyzing Social Class in Shakespeare.”
Poster 15 — a quantitative read on social class in Shakespeare.
Attendees talking in front of a wood-framed natural-history exhibit case.
The floor filling up.
Shalvi looking at a mounted fossil skeleton inside a glass display case.
A detour past the natural-history cases.
Shalvi holding a coffee in a doorway with the busy event room behind her.
Coffee between rounds.
An overhead view of the crowded event floor with balloons and exhibit tables.
The room at full tilt.
Act IV

The awards

Everyone folded into the ballroom for lightning talks and the ceremony — orange couches on stage, an Outstanding Presentation Award, and a step-and-repeat on the way out.

A seated audience facing a stage and projection screen, plates of food on laps.
Lunch and lightning talks.
Shalvi standing in the ballroom before an empty stage set with orange couches.
Before the ceremony.
Shalvi holding her badge in front of a screen reading “Princeton Research Day — #PRD25 Awards Ceremony will begin soon.”
Awards ceremony, about to begin.
Shalvi posing on a PRD-branded step-and-repeat backdrop while someone cheers her on.
On the step-and-repeat.
A full audience watching a speaker on stage under the Research Day screen.
The ceremony.
A screen reading “Outstanding Presentation Award” in front of a seated crowd.
Outstanding Presentation Award.
A speaker at a podium addressing the seated awards audience.
A wide view of the packed ballroom during the ceremony.
Act V

The walk back

And then the reward for a day of judging: a slow walk down Prospect Avenue past the eating clubs, stone and brick and hand-lettered chalk signs, before heading home.

A hand-lettered chalkboard sign reading “Sleight of Hand” on a lawn in front of a brick building.
Prospect Avenue.
A stone gothic-style house with a peaked roof behind a low stone wall under a blue sky.
Stone and slate.
A large brick Georgian mansion behind a brick wall and manicured lawn.
Brick and ivy.