August 16, 2021, by Lisa Chin
Winners announced in UNM 2021 Virtual 3MT®
The average doctoral thesis would take 9 hours to present. They only have 3 minutes!
The idea for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition came about at a time when the state of Queensland in Australia was suffering 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’s Graduate School, Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, put two and two together and the idea for the 3MT®competition was born. Now 3MT® is held in over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.
UNM 2021 Virtual 3MT®
The competition went virtual again this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. This is the second time the competition was held through an online platform for the best interests of public health and safety. Nevertheless, the online setting allowed 10 of our doctoral researchers to compete in our Virtual 3MT® Live! on Thursday 12 August 2021. Each researcher had just 3 minutes to present their research in a concise and engaging way.
A panel of judges decided the Winner and Runner Ups while the audience vote decided the People’s Choice Winner. The judges were drawn from academic and professional services, comprised of: Professor Andy Chan, Interim Vice Provost of Research & Knowledge Exchange; Dr Hazel Melanie Ramos, Associate Dean of Teaching & Learning for the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences and Head of the Division of Applied Psychology; and Ms Vivi Lim, Head of IT Services.
“As researchers, we do research but often we forget the importance of communicating research and how to do it effectively. 3MT® really embraces the whole idea of research communication and ethos about translating our important work in research to the world,” said Professor Chan during the opening of the live event. “It is a competition but most importantly, I hope you find it enjoyable regardless of winning or losing because ultimately, you learn the secret of translating an important piece of your research work into something that even layman could understand,” continued Professor Chan when he addressed the contestants before concluding his opening remarks.
Winner
We are pleased to announce that Chong Yuet Tian from the School of Biosciences is the 2021 Winner of the UNM Virtual 3MT®. Yuet Tian won with a presentation of her PhD thesis Winged Bean: The World Within, which aims at developing improved varieties of winged bean with increased nutritional value and crop yield. This crop development offers significant potential in tackling the global food security and nutrition challenges.
Yuet Tian will now progress to the video round to compete against the other Nottingham campuses. The overall winner will represent the entire University of Nottingham at the Universitas 21 (U21) Final, also via video, which will be judged by an international panel of industry and academic professionals.
1st Runner Up & People’s Choice
The 1st Runner Up is Angela Paul Peter from the Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering for her presentation Digital Algae Growth Monitoring. Angela described her research using algae to produce sustainable fuel and renewable energy. She envisioned the outcome from her research will open a new frontier of cultivating eco-friendly technologies in producing an affordable and sustainable source of energy without compromising global environment.
Angela is also the People’s Choice Winner.
2nd Runner Up
The 2nd Runner Up is Nurul Syahirah Mat Aron from the Department of Chemical & Environmental Engineering for her presentation Microalgae: Future Food and Biofuel. Nurul Syahirah described her research on microalgae as an alternative source of food and energy. Her research offers promising breakthroughs in downstream processing of microalgae for lipid and protein recovery while minimising environmental impacts.
Congratulatory message
In his congratulatory message, Dr Tissa Chandesa, Research Training Development Manager and Interim Head of the Graduate School gave commendation to the great support by the contestants, judges, and audience in making this year’s event so successful. He further congratulated the enormous success of every contestant as they fearlessly faced their fear of public speaking and came out victorious.
“It has been a very tough year for everyone, dealing with the uncertainty of the ongoing pandemic. Nevertheless, the outpouring support of togetherness at this year’s live event clearly shows that the encouragement from our community is stronger than ever! Building on the success of 2020 edition, this year’s competition opened its “virtual” doors to the involvement of a live audience. I was very pleased and proud to see so many people tuned in to watch this year’s competition. All of us bear witness to a great line-up of highly effective communicators who presented their outstanding research to the best of their abilities. It is a tremendous testament to the high quality of postgraduate research students at UNM. To the judging panel and audience, on behalf of the organising committee, thank you so much for your continuous support – greatly appreciated! Finally, to the 3MT® class of 2021 – congratulations and well done – all of you are true CHAMPIONS!” – Dr Chandesa
For any enquiries or more information, please contact graduateschool@nottingham.edu.my.
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