Graduate Niners Share Big Ideas in Just Three Minutes

UNC Charlotte’s 10th annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, hosted by the Reynolds Center for Graduate Life and Learning, concluded on November 19th as 11 finalists competed before an audience of more than 100 people for the top prize: $1500 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to compete in the 3MT regionals at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools annual meeting in Baton Rouge, LA in February. These awards are made possible thanks to the generous and steadfast support of Raju Law.

3MT challenges students to succinctly convey their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes or less, with no props or aids other than a single static presentation slide. 3MT originated at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2008, and spread quickly, with more than 200 universities worldwide now participating.

The event opened with comments from Dr. Katherine Hall-Hertel, Associate Dean of Graduate Academic and Student Affairs, and Graduate School Dean Dr. Bill Tolone spoke to the contestants after their presentations. Dean Tolone also presented the winners with their certificates at a reception in the Student Union Art Gallery.

More than 50 UNC Charlotte graduate students vied for a spot in the finals across five preliminary rounds in October. This year’s finalists showcased the breadth of research conducted at our university, with topics as diverse as the evolution of nasal cavities in bats, the potential native languages hold for those learning second ones, and the struggles facing veterans after retirement. Big accolades are on the line, but first and foremost 3MT provides a way to celebrate the work that makes UNC Charlotte the R1 university it is today.

This year’s winners are: 

1st Place

Caroline West, PhD Bionformatics – My Liquids Don’t Like Your Liquids

2nd Place

Hal West-Page, PhD Applied Mathematics – Optimizing ICU Utilization: A Queueing Theoretic Approach to Model Healthcare System Preparedness

3rd Place

Kayla Lenz, PhD Mechanical Engineering – Small Science, Big Impact: Nanotechnology for Faster, Smarter Virus Detection

People’s Choice

Naz Fathma Tumpa, PhD Chemistry – Using Chemistry to Sniff Out the Truth

Each competitor was evaluated by a panel of seven judges, all influential professionals in the Charlotte area, from varied fields themselves, including workforce development, business tech, and musical enterprise. Several of the judges were alumni from UNC Charlotte, reconnecting with their alma mater in a new way.

Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and all graduate students who competed in the primary rounds!

JUDGES:

• Davina Demelenne, Senior Consultant Business Technology Implementation, SEI, a management consulting firm
  
• Claudio Ferri, Artistic Director & Deputy General Director at Opera Carolina
  
• Elma Lloyd, Head of Enablement & Business Engagement, Equitable
  
• Scott McFarlane, Senior Staff Engineer, Lending Tree
  
• Matteo Di Michele, AI Global Compliance & Operation Risk, Bank of America
  
• Kirsten Rodgers, President & Founder Proximate Learning, A workforce development firm in Health & Human Services
  
• Shane Taylor, Instructional Designer, Ally

PRESENTATIONS:

• Sadia Siraz, PhD Electrical Engineering – Sequential Learning for Predicting Geographic Atrophy Progression from OCT Imaging
• Caroline West, PhD Bioinformatics – My Liquids Don’t Like Your Liquids
• Kayla Lenz, PhD Mechanical Engineering – Small Science: Big Impact: Nanotechnology for Faster, Smarter Virus Detection
• Rishi Misra, PhD Bioinformatics – The Development of the Nasal Cavity of Bats Revealed Through 3D Models
• Sarah Tabassum, PhD Computing and Information Systems – You’ve Got a Scam! Why Smart People Fall for Fake Texts
• Hal West-Page, PhD Applied Mathematics – Optimizing ICU Utilization: A Queueing THeoretic Approach to Model Healthcare System Preparedness
• Naz Fathma Tump, PhD Chemistry – Using Chemistry to Sniff Out the Truth
• MacGregor VanBeurden, MPA Public Administration – Pick Your Poison: Factors Driving Drug(s) of Choice in Rural versus Urban America
• Kenneth Fields, PhD Computing and Information Systems – Challenges of US Army Transitioning Program (Cognitive Deficiencies, Personalized or Adaptive Learning and AI Technologies)
• Amira Khalile, PhD Curriculum and Instruction – Speaking with Confidence: The Power of Translanguaging in ESL
• Emily Citrano, PhD Health Psychology – Beyond Seizures: Understanding Health Related Quality of Life in Pediatric Epilepsy