Three Minute Thesis

Sponsored by Raju Law

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®️) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia that challenges graduate students to succinctly summarize their research for a non-specialist audience in 3 minutes or less. The goal of the competition is for students to leverage all of their communication skills to convey their research to a general audience without jargon. All master’s and doctoral students currently involved in research are encouraged to participate (even if your research is not yet complete).

The Fall 2024 3MT FINALS are complete! Congratulations to the Winners:

1st Place: Lauren Hultquist, Keyboard Warriors

2nd Place: Vedika Judyani, AI-Driven Insights into Viral Recombination

3rd Place: Brandon Bendickson, Mitigating Bias in the Genomic Analysis of Several Tomato Varieties

People’s Choice Award: Sarah Tesar, Peer-Led Sexual Health Education for Older Adults in Congregate Living

And to all who competed:

Caroline West, Bioinformatics: There’s a Virus in my Bacteria in the Fungus in the Plant

Sina Gholami, Electrical Engineering: Application of AI in Ophthalmology

Emanuela Likskendaj Izquierdo, English: Identity Negotiation for Parents in Multilingual Families

Heather McBride, Bioinformatics: Overexpression of Biofiltering Genes Across Several Species of Endangered Unionidae

Dylan Marrotte, Bioinformatics: Unlocking Biological Insights: Visualizing Big Data with the Integrated Genome Browser

Maitree Patel, Bioinformatics: Bacterial “Triglycerides” Increase Agricultural Productivity: A Computational Approach to Improved Microbial Viability

The CGLL also thanks our 3MT Final ROund Judges:

Glen Kowalchuk, MD: Cardiologist at Atrium Health

Jack Parrish: Owner of Sunflour Bakery

Scott McFarlane: UNC Charlotte Graduate, Senior Staff Engineer at LendingTree

Tejashri Arote: UNC Charlotte Graduate, Software Development Engineer at Texas Instruments

Why should you participate?

  • 3MT is a great experience to list on your resume/CV and talk about in interviews.
  • It’s an opportunity to practice and improve your public speaking and communication skills.
  • There are cash prizes for the finalists! In 2024: First place: $1000$1500, second place: $750$1000; third place: $500$750
  • The first-place winner progresses to the regional 3MT competition at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, which will take place in Dallas, Texas on March 19-21, 2025.
  • You have nothing to lose! Even if you don’t win the grand prize, the experience will help you improve your communication and public speaking skills and will allow you to think about your research in a new way!
  • We will also provide you with your preliminary round video for you to keep!