To clarify a subject to non-specialists, creating a video is a much more efficient way compared to giving lectures, preparing graphs, and even writing plain language articles.

Gradflix is a competition held each year at the University of Waterloo encouraging grad students to create 1-minute videos to explain their research topics. Then, based on a set of predefined criteria, three videos are chosen as the winners.

I participated last year (2020) and made a very simple video to explain the very basic idea of GPS-Reflectometry. Surprisingly, I was chosen as a finalist. Although I did not place among the first three winners, it was a great inspiration for me to walk on the red carpet as a finalist.

This year (2021), I spent more time and created a more professional video to explain our research on the GNSS-Reflectometry capability of soil water content monitoring. After a month, I was waiting for another confirmation email, like the one that I received last year, saying that I have been chosen again as a finalist for this year, but I received a rejection email saying “although your video is an excellent number one fantastic phenomenon piece of art work, BUT your video was not qualified to be chosen among finalists.” Such a retrogression :)) I can’t deny that I got disappointed when I received that rejection email, but when I got back to my video and showed it to a couple of animation specialists, they confirmed that it was just a bit better than awful =))

By the way, I would say that this video could still be beneficial for those who want to get more familiar with daily applications of GNSS-Reflectometry.