September 20, 2017, by Lisa Chin

UNMC 2017 3MT® Competition

This post is written by Dr Lee Jiin Woei, Research Training Development Manager. 

As head organiser for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT^®) event, I am writing this blog to give my perspective on the training and the subsequent happenings up till the day of the competition.

If there was a fly on the wall that saw the changes that these students made in just a little over a month, I’d bet that it has interesting and inspiring stories to tell. The first time I briefed the competitors about the basics, rules and regulations of the 3MT^® was on 8 Aug and the competition day was on 12 Sep.

The non-compulsory peer review training sessions started from 11 Aug until 11 Sep: 2 to 3 times a week, totalling to 26 hours. Twelve mentors consisting of academics, Toastmasters members, one external from industry, and members of the Graduate School including Tissa and myself, also assisted the competitors with their contents, slides, delivery, tone, body language and pronunciation. The contestants also gave each other feedback on their slides and talks.

The mentors aside from Tissa and myself, the Research Training Development Managers, were:

• Lillian JA Olule – Highly Commended award winner at the U21 3MT^® 2016 round
• Mohammed Ayoub Juman – runner up of UNMC 3MT^® 2016
• Ms Deepa Kumari Veerasingam – Head, Graduate School
• Ms Vimaleswari Danapal – Assistant Manager, Graduate School
• Mr David Chan – Principal Consultant, Integer Springs Sdn Bhd
• Ms Lhavanya Dharmalingam – undergraduate student at the School of Politics, History and International Relations and accomplished Toastmasters International member
• Ms Salinee Ganeson – Senior Executive, Alumni and Donor Relations Office
• Ms Chan Wen-Li – Assistant Professor of Business Law, Nottingham University Business School
• Ms Salomy Sumithra Krishna – Head of English Language Education and Support, Centre for English Language and Foundation Education
• Hoh Chin Chin, UNMC 3MT^® 2016 participant

I am very grateful about the amount of mentors who were happy to volunteer their time and energy to help the students. Special thanks to Lillian, Ayoub and David as they spent a lot of time helping the students.

I am in awe of the competitors as they put in a lot of hard work not only during the training workshops but in between them as well. I am in extra awe of the competitors who had very complicated and technical subjects to explain as they had to think on how to make it relatable to a possible real life application for the benefit of a lay audience. I am also in extra awe of the ones who had to break pronunciation and grammatical habits in a very short span of time; I salute them for being willing to be corrected in front of others. I really hope that they had a good time and that they enjoyed themselves and took something valuable away with them for immediate use for their PhD and beyond. They were also very helpful to each other; a competitor mentioned “… I did see that people could be competitors but help each other out at the same time. I have never seen the term ‘fair play’ to be true to this extent“.

Overall, the judges were impressed by the quality of the presentations and commented that they enjoyed their time at the 3MT^®. According to Professor Graham Kendall, Provost and CEO of the Malaysia Campus, the quality of the speakers were generally good. The judges were from a mix of fields:

• Professor Graham Kendall – Provost and CEO of the Malaysia Campus. Professor of Computer Science. Chair of the 3MT^® judges.
• Mr Dhinesha Karthigesu – A multi-medium queer storyteller and entrepreneur who is the Causeway Exchange (CEX) Poetry Slam 2017 Champion and lead the Malaysia team to an overall win against Singapore.
• Datin Dr Thusha Rani Rajendra – Senior Lecturer attached to the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, specifically the Teacher Training Institute, Malay Language Campus at Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur.
• Ms Nadia Alsagoff – Laboratory Supervisor of the tuberculosis laboratory for the International Organisation for Migration (UN Migration Agency), providing medical screening for refugees/migrants in Malaysia.
• Ir Bernard Ryan Simon – Head, New Ventures, Cenergi SEA Sdn Bhd (Khazanah Nasional Berhad investment company), Cenergi SEA develops and invests in clean energy projects.

The feeling of solidarity amongst the competitors and mentors was so obvious. Tissa and I are very proud of how far the competitors have come. We saw their frustration and confusion from the amount of feedback they got because they could be contradictory at times. We saw their elation (or relief) when they got something right. I conclude this event to be another successful one and I look forward to being involved in the next 3MT^®.

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