The Graduate School Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition took place on 20 May, during the GS Festival week. Facing the extra challenge of recording their presentation to be played to the live, online audience, our contestants competed to win the Judges’ Vote and the People’s Choice.
With one static image to complement their presentation, our 4 doctoral researchers sought to convey their research project and its aims in accessible language in only 3 minutes.
The event provides a unique opportunity for doctoral researchers to talk about their research, its wider relevance and potential impact, to a wide range of people including non-specialists – an important skill for successful researchers. Holding the event online for the first time opened the competition to a wider audience.
The contestants
Special thanks to all our contestants for their dedication and enthusiasm, which made it such a great event. Their commitment to the process and the coaching was clearly evidenced in the quality of their presentations:
- Maria Bortnovskaya
School of Media and Communication - Mara Leite
School of Life Sciences - Arijit Basu
School of Applied Management - Minerva Fadel
School of Architecture and Cities
You can read more about the contestants on the festival website.
The judges
Our panel of invited judges were the first to experience an online 3MT Competition at UoW, so our special thanks goes to them for embracing the format!
- Dr Bradley Elliott
- Prof Debra Kelly
- Mykaell Riley
With only one viewing of each competition entry, the judges scored each recording using strict criteria, followed by a group deliberation to select their winner! The judges were highly impressed with the quality of all the presentations.
The winners
The Judges’ Winner was Minerva Fadel, (School of Architecture and Cities) with her presentation, entitled Building Peace & Inclusion through Architecture.
Minerva Fadel, Judges’ Winner, GS 3MT 2021
Minerva receives a prize of £500 and her presentation will be submitted to the national 3MT semi-final competition, representing the University of Westminster. We wish her the best of luck!
During the event, the audience voted for the People’s Choice, and their winner was Mara Leite (School of Life Sciences), with her presentation entitled, Going Green on the Red Planet. Mara receives a prize of £100.
Mara Leite, People’s Choice Winner, GS 3MT 2021
The competition is just one event informed by the rich training and development opportunities offered to our doctoral researchers by the Graduate School.
We hope to coach even more doctoral researchers next year as we look forward to the GS 3MT Competition 2022!
You can see a host of materials from the GS Festival 2021 on our blog.