Graduate students at UBC are presenting their thesis work in hopes of gaining cash prizes. Over 115 grad students have entered the 3 Minute Thesis competition (3MT) at UBC this year. It is the second time it has been held on campus, and is one of the only 3MT contests in North America.

Jake McIver, a participant in the applied science heat, explained that the contest looks to break barriers between researchers and the general public by modifying complex subjects into three-minute presentations.

“One of the main purposes behind it is to be able to communicate research to someone that’s intelligent but might not necessarily be an expert in your area—so it’s typically judged by faculty members from different departments, and that offers a lot of insight in terms of really gauging how well you can communicate your research to someone else,” said McIver.

On top of only having three minutes, competitors are also only able to use one PowerPoint slide in their presentations. Departmental heats are currently being held, leading up to the competition finals on March 2. Cash prizes for this year have yet to be finalized.

“I thought the format was good. It was a good challenge from a public speaking perspective to learn how to articulate what you’re trying to explain in a short amount of time,” said Jennifer Selgrath, a PhD student in zoology working in conjunction with Project Seahorse and a competitor in this year’s 3MT.

The competition began in Australia in 2008 before moving to New Zealand, which together had an international competition with participants from 43 institutions in 2011.

“UBC is one of the first in North America to run this competition,” said Jacqui Brinkman, manager of UBC’s graduate pathways to success.

“We have colleagues at SFU and UVIC excited about the competition, but not yet running their own. They plan to next year, so we’re really hoping to have at least a province-wide competition.”

“Having interacted with a lot of graduate students…they have a hard time explaining their ideas to non-field people or non-specialty folks, and this pushes them to really explore their topic, distil the information and deliver it effectively,” said Mokaram Rauf, a medical student from Northwestern University who attended the Faculty of Forestry heat on February 9.

All heats and final events are open to the public. For more information and the event schedule visit 3mt.grad.ubc.ca.

—with files from David Marino

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