Fast thinking is required to present a thesis in three minutes

Graduate students across multiple disciplines presented their theses during the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition on Feb. 19.

The 3MT Competition introduces challenges including the fact that graduate students only have three minutes to present the thesis of their research and could only have one PowerPoint slide. If the students went over the three-minute time limit, they were disqualified.

Along with presenting in three minutes, students also had to make sure their complex theories were presented in a way that the entire audience could understand.

Judges critiqued the theses by grading the content, comprehension, communication and engagement with each category worth five points.

With a wide range of disciplines, some of the presentations discussed topics like the opioid epidemic, environmental issues and teaching methods.

Swetha Thiyagarajan, a graduate student in Pharmaceutical sciences, presented her thesis on the disease-causing mammalian protein. Thiyagarajan described the competition as a “big task.” Thiyagarajan said since she only had 180 seconds to present it meant she had to limit her focus.

“The competition isn’t about winning, but what you get out of it.”

– Swetha Thiyagarajan, graduate student in Pharmaceutical Sciences

When talking about how the competition will help her in her future career, Thiyagarajan said it will assist her because she had to describe her research in simple terms for everyone to understand.

Thiyagarajan also gave some advice to students interested in competing in the competition next year. “Go for it,” Thiyagarajan said, “It prepares you for the real world.”

“The competition isn’t about winning, but what you get out of it,” Thiyagarajan added.

Overall, the competition featured six preliminary rounds with five competitors in each. Every preliminary round had one winner who received $250 and went on to compete in the championship round. In the last round, one winner was rewarded $1,000 and will go on to compete at the Western Association of Graduate Schools Fourth Annual Regional 3MT Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 11.

Along with the 3MT Competition, graduate students were also able to present their work and research during the Graduate Student Showcase event. This event gave the audience a chance to view the students’ work up close as graduates had displays and posters showcasing the research they’ve been working on.

The championship round competitors were Alireza Rahimi; Coatings and Polymeric Materials, Babak Jahani; Mechanical Engineering, Babak Mamnoon; Pharmaceutical sciences, Hizb Ullah Sajid; Civil Engineering, Jasmine Cutter; Range science and Riddhi Trivedi; Pharmaceutical sciences.

After the contestants had presented their theses to the audience again, they were asked what was something they wanted to have in their presentation but didn’t have the time to fit into the three minutes. Riddhi Trivedi, a graduate student in Pharmaceutical Sciences, said, “There’s just so many things. We get stuck up on so many details while doing research cause we work on those minute details.”

The rest of the contestants expanded on concepts and statistics they weren’t able to explain within the time limit giving the audience more details about their research.

Once the contestants answered the audience’s questions, the judges announced Riddhi Trivedi as the winner of the competition. Trivedi also won the audience favorite when it came to her presentation.

Trivedi is now set to present her research titled ‘No more hide and seek: Nanoparticles seek out the hiding HIV in the brain to combat NeuroAIDs,’ next month.