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This annual event, which showcases graduate student’s ability to distill their nine-hour thesis down to three minutes, comes back Feb. 13 at 4 p.m.

What is the best way to distill a multitude of information into just three minutes?

That’s the question that 11 graduate students will be wrestling with as part of the Graduate School’s eighth annual��Three Minute Thesis (3MT) final competition, which will be held in the��University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom on Feb. 13, 2025, from 4 to 6 p.m.

This event challenges students to explain their thesis to the general public. They are then judged by a panel of judges from across the university. Winners of the event will be announced at the end of the program and the audience will have the opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice award.

While the event is free and open to the public, space is limited and�� for in-person attendance. The event��.

This year’s competitors include:

• Anna Deese, educational foundations, policy and practice, “When Students & School-Voters Differ: The Promise and Peril of Local Control”
• Celeste Guiles, aerospace engineering, “Bringing You Safely Home from Outer Space”
• Aoife Henry, electrical, computer and energy engineering, “Directing Turbine with Foresight: The Shepherd and the Sheepdog find a Crystal Ball.”
• Casey Hunt, ATLAS Institute, “Building a Shared Future: A Toolkit for Collaborative Robot Design”
• Heiko Kabutz, mechanical engineering, “Enhancing Locomotion through Shape Morphing in Insect Robots”
• Heather Kenny-Duddela, ecology and evolutionary biology, “Feathered Flings: The Dating Lives of Barn Swallows”
• Casey Middleton, computer science, “Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3”
• Nandi Pointer, media studies, “Exit to Entry: Black Expatriates and Teaching English as Fugitive, Liberatory Praxis”
• Hunter Ray, aerospace engineering, “Drones to the Rescue: From Tools to Teammates in Public Safety”
• Anna Turner, media studies, “Building Bridges through Popular Media”
• Marwa Yacouti, aerospace engineering, “Unveiling the Hidden Stories of Materials”

The 3MT event began in 2008 when the state of Queensland, Australia, suffered from a severe drought. To conserve water, residents were encouraged to time their showers, and many people had a three-minute egg timer fixed to the wall in their bathroom. The then-Dean of the University of Queensland Graduate School, Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, decided to apply the same approach with his students in a first of its kind competition.

3MT challenges graduate students to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience. To prepare, beginning last fall, 31 graduate students participated in a series of workshops focusing on storytelling, writing, presentation skills and improv comedy techniques. They then held a preliminary competition at the end of the fall 2024 semester and whittled the competition down to eleven finalists.

The graduate students competing at this year’s 3MT finals will be evaluated by a panel of judges on their comprehension, content, engagement and communication.

The winner of the competition will receive $1,500 in prize money and will have the chance to compete at the regional competition as the 91����Ƶ’s representative. The runner-up and the People’s Choice winner, voted on by the live audience, will also receive funding.

Judges for this year’s event are Waleed Abdalati, executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and professor of geography; Jared Bahir Browsh, director of critical sports studies and an assistant teaching professor; Robert Streeter, site supervisor at Polar Field Services and 3MT 2023 winner; and Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership support and programming. Bud Coleman, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Theatre & Dance, will be the event’s emcee.

More information about the competition is available on the��Graduate School's 3MT web page.