Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Irvine

Title of entry: The Lab Beat

About this entry: The purpose of The Lab Beat multimedia storytelling campaign is to give a compelling look into what goes on in UCI engineering labs. It’s for students, the university community and those interested in engineering. It's part of the Stand Up for Science campaign that demonstrates the value of scientific research.

Senior multimedia strategist Natalie Tso visited the labs and talked to professors and students about their innovations, inspirations and visions. She recorded the interviews, took photos and recorded sounds of lab technology.

She hosted and produced the podcast. She wrote a podcast script from highlights of the recordings to create audio snapshots of the labs and their research. She also wrote an article on each lab and used photos to explain the lab’s research on Instagram and other social media channels.

The Lab Beat podcast enables listeners to visit intriguing UCI engineering labs in their minds via audio. The music, lab machine sounds and narration recreate the atmosphere of the labs, while highlights from the interviews bring out the distinct personal stories and inspirations that drive these leading engineers in their research.

This is a multimedia storytelling campaign that was launched in fall 2025. Along with each episode, Natalie Tso wrote an article and created social media posts including Instagram carousels on each lab. This has led to 733,703 views on social media about the labs featured from Sept - Dec. 2025.

The Lab Beat published 9 episodes from Sept. - Dec. 2025 and has increased awareness of UCI’s cutting-edge research.