Put Your Logic and Gaming Skills to the Test And Find Out If You Have What It Takes to Become the Sole Grad School Survivor!

The Sole Grad School Survivor

While this isn’t one of my usual blog posts explaining scientific research; after a year long break, I felt I wanted to resume more regular postings by sharing a fun escape room I’ve recently designed.

To start, let’s begin back where I left off. Exactly 365 days ago today, the emails started flooding in from every academic group and department, making a statement that COVID-19 had arrived and all upcoming social events were cancelled. We were to stay home and wait it out. At the time, we thought it would only be a temporary two week hiatus. The quarantine would do it’s job and life would quickly return to normal. Our 20-20 hindsight tells us just how little we knew. Those weeks turned to months and those months to a year. In other words, we weren’t remotely accurate.  

So began the start of the work-from-home computational biology PhD experience. Initially, my research productivity skyrocketed. There was no longer a way to ”waste” time commuting on the bus listening to new music and audiobooks, taking lunch and coffee breaks around campus with my friends, or sneaking off to go for a long swim-and-think while code ran on the HPC. With little to do but research, read, and binge seasons 28-40 of Survivor (new school fan all the way); I quickly sprinted through chapter after chapter of my thesis on pace to complete the grad school marathon by the end of 2021.

However, as time dragged on and the Chicago winter hit, it was clear this lifestyle wasn’t going to be sustainable — and I don’t mean in the ecological perspective of previous posts. Live – laugh – love had turned to code – publish – repeat.

What I — and I think we’ve all been missing lately — was the social aspect of Grad School. I began working on a solution by creating a remote interactive experience for my peers to foster a sense of community. What initially started as a past time, quickly turned into a multi-level virtual escape room. Using the gather.town platform, the Survivor reward/immunity challenge framework of physical virtual obstacle courses and puzzles, and a little inspiration from the maze like structure of buildings on campus/Pokémon nostalgia; I finished designing a Northwestern DGP themed escape room — Survivor Grad School: The Darwinian Hunger Games.

Last week, my side project culminated in a group of DGP PhD students — 5 groups of 4 — all gathering around their own computer screens, collaboratively competing for reward and the title of Sole Grad School Survivor!

Ultimately, the event was a hit with teams managing to complete the game in just over 1.5 hours! Not only did everyone have fun, but by intentionally created teams of mixed cohort years, the activity helped build new connection across cohorts and reestablish old bonds. Personally, watching everyone play and feel part of the community has given me a second wind. I am reinvigorated to both blog and finish the home stretch of my PhD — hold tight for Thesis chapter blog posts coming soon!

On that note, I’ll stop writing and leave you to grab a group of friends, put your logic and gaming skills to the test, and find out if you have what it takes to become the Sole Grad School Survivor!

Note: This Survivor themed escape room has no affiliation with the CBS show and was created strictly for academic use.

Feedback is always appreciated, so please leave comments, ask questions, and feel free to reach out!