It’s not an easy task to talk up your research without dumbing it down. Western graduate students who have perfected that art make their pitch today in the finals of Western’s Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT). The competition, which was comprised of five heats over the last few days, culminates at 3 p.m. today, April 26 in the McKellar Room, University Community Centre.
3MT is a research communication competition where graduate students have three minutes or less to present their research and its impact to a panel of non-specialist judges and peers. The exercise develops academic, presentation and research communication skills and supports the development of research students’ capacity to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to an intelligent but non-specialist audience.
The competition was developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. The first 3MT was held at UQ in 2008 with 160 graduate students competing. Enthusiasm for the 3MT concept grew and its adoption in numerous universities led to the development of an international competition in 2010.
Western, one of the first Canadian universities to host a 3MT competition, originally set 60 available spots. That number filled up in eight hours, resulting in opening up another two heats for a total number of 100 participants.
Visit the competition’s website for details.
