Tag: 3MT

My Three Minute Thesis

By Hannah Maude, 2nd Year PhD Student, Department of Medicine.
hannah.maude12@imperial.ac.uk

I was absolutely thrilled to recently be awarded third place in the Graduate School Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition. Not only because it was completely unexpected, but because the standard of the competition was insanely high (classic Imperial?!). Every single contestant gave an excellent talk.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of a three-minute thesis, I can tell you it means exactly that: describe your three-year PhD in three minutes. Sounds a challenge, right? I confess that my favourite bad habit is signing up to anything outside my comfort zone; bad because it means experiencing all the nerves and potential failure, but good because overcoming the challenge means learning new skills, feeling proud of my achievements, and ultimately having a great time.

What’s involved?

The first brief was quite general, “nominees will present their current research in one slide and three minutes”, so I did what I do best and carried out some research. YouTube revealed that 3MT equals general overview of your research topic: background, clarity, content, confidence, enthusiasm and simplicity were just a few of the recommended qualities. People approach this in different ways, some choose to speak ad-lib, while others—including myself—write a speech and learn it word for word.

What did your speech cover?

My speech covered the background and concepts behind my research, in a nutshell that risk of Type 2 Diabetes can be inherited, and that I spend my days researching exactly how DNA mutations increase your risk of disease. See the published speech: https://hanmaude.wixsite.com/keepcalmreadscience/my-3-minute-thesis

 

The 3MT slide, with quotes below. “This meme, which recently appeared on my Facebook, represents how some people can live healthily, yet still develop obesity and Diabetes. This bad luck has an explanation: it’s in your DNA”. “The DNA you inherit is like a game of cards; we have no control over whether we are dealt a ‘healthy’ or an ‘unhealthy’ genetic hand.” “Mutations at ‘risk loci’ disrupt ‘instructions’ and change the activity of nearby genes.”

How was the experience?

Honestly, the idea of standing up at the front of a lecture theatre and reciting a speech word for word within a strict time limit is pretty daunting. Once on stage however, I really enjoyed myself. I was able to be fully enthusiastic about my work and explain it to an audience who were genuinely curious. I also loved listening to all the other fascinating 3MT’s – who knew the concept of mixing two liquids could be so interesting?!

What did you learn?

The aim of a 3MT is to help a lay audience understand what you are researching. Not only is this super fun (and my Mum finally understands what I do) but taking a step back to think about your research in very basic terms, is totally underrated. I learnt to overcome my nerves, to be disciplined within a time limit, and how to communicate my research.

Take home message?

I would recommend the 3MT competition to all graduate students. It’s one of my biggest achievements this year and was so much fun. If you’re not one for presenting, I would absolutely recommend watching. It’s an inspiring event with engaging talks and you get a real feel for the huge variety of PhD projects going on at Imperial.

Maria Lucey (2nd place), me (3rd place), Paulina Rowinska (1st place) and Matt Douthwaite (People’s choice).

180 Seconds

by Paulina Rowinska, PhD student in the Department of Mathematics.

Years of research squeezed into three minutes? That was the task I and eighteen other participants of Imperial College Three Minute Thesis competition had to face on Tuesday 24th April 2018.

The rules are very simple. Contestants get exactly three minutes to describe their research to a general audience, using only one static slide. Sounds easy, but trust me, it’s extremely difficult. How do you introduce your narrow topic, explain what your research involves and persuade the audience that they should care in the first place?

All nineteen of us managed to do that. I learned a lot about a variety of research areas, from planting forests in Brazil, to optimal mixing of coffee and milk, to gravitational waves. I was impressed by the amount of information other contestant were able to convey in such a short time.

Because my last name starts with “R” and the order of presentations was alphabetical, I had to wait for what felt like AGES for my turn. These were very stressful hours! However, as soon as I stepped on the stage, I felt much better, especially since the audience was lively and reacting very positively to my words.

Our host, Professor Tom Welton, the dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, made the event truly entertaining. His jokes, smiles and charismatic personality let us, the contestants, forget about the challenge ahead of us.

Finally the panel of judges consisting of Dr Helal Ahmed, Dr Amy Seakins and Simon Schöller picked their favourite talks. The third place went to Hannah Maude from the Department of Medicine for her talk ‘Genomics of Common Disease’ that explored the link between the genes and diabetes. The second place was awarded to Maria Lucey from the same department. During her presentation ‘Food for Thought: Inhibiting Appetite with Prokineticin’ she explained how our appetites works. And the first prize… to me, for my talk ‘Winds of Change’! I used my three minutes to describe how I’m applying mathematics to help investments in renewable energy sources. The audience also voted for their favourite presentation, which turned out to be ‘Wearable Integrated Circuits for Sweat Analysis’ by Matt Douthwaite from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, who made us feel a bit better about our stress sweat 😉

I signed up for this contest spontaneously and I’m truly happy I did it! During this fun event I got a chance to hear about the research of fellow PhD students as well as practice giving talks, which is the key to get over the fear of public speaking.

Make sure that in 2019 you sign up yourself and get your own three minutes of fame. Good luck!

The 2018 Three Minute Thesis Contestants
The winners! L-R: 2nd place, 3rd place, 1st place and People’s Choice winner

Three-Minute Thesis: From Contestant to Judge

By Sophie Damy

Summer seems to have finally arrived in London and it is hard not to start thinking about the holidays. Imagine, in a few weeks, going back home to visit your family and having to answer the recurring question: “What is it exactly that you are researching?” In my case, I can categorically forget the usual “I am developing algorithms to minimise the bias created by deterministic errors on the position estimated by a satellite-based positioning system.” You will need to keep your explanation clear and concise while trying to share your enthusiasm.

This situation is actually pretty similar to the 3-minute thesis competition! The rules are simple: one static slide, no prop and most importantly, strictly three minutes (timed to the second) to convince a diverse audience of the interest and importance of your research.

Preparing for the departmental competition two years ago, the exercise revealed itself more challenging than I first expected. Three minutes is very short. It forces you to select the essential facts and present them so that they are clearly connected. All this while dismissing the scientific jargon you are so used to employ. In the end, and despite being only three minutes long, this presentation took a long time to prepare.

But these efforts were rewarded and I got selected to represent the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the College 3 minute competition with 18 other students, representing over 10 departments and institutes. That was a total of 57 minutes of diverse and captivating research! But to be honest, while sitting and waiting for my turn to come, these were actually quite stressful minutes.

Fortunately for me, the jury shared my frustration with signal failures and delayed trains and the idea I developed to solve the issue and awarded me the first prize for my presentation “Bringing train travel to the space age!” It was a great honour, especially as the competition was tenacious with a flurry of interesting and entertaining talks.

One of the great things about receiving the first prize is that you are invited back next year, but this time you get to sit on the other side of the table, as a member of the jury! Admittedly, this is a much more pleasant place to be with a fraction of the stress despite the importance of the duty. This year, 23 candidates are waiting to present their research. As each approaches the front of the room, I think of all the work they have done to prepare for these three minutes. The more effortless the presentation appears, the more likely the preparation was rigorous. Thanks to the Graduate School organisation, the event runs like clockwork! The enthusiasm and passion of each candidate for their research are tangible and highly contagious, and the afternoon just flies by.

The time for the deliberations arrives. With so many original ideas and presentations, it takes four judges to make the difficult decision in selecting the three winners. But all presenters should be very proud today, they did an amazing job. I have learnt so much this afternoon and in such an entertaining way!

One thing is clear after having experienced both ‘sides’ of the table: the general public is curious about science and researchers are happy to explain their work. And I believe the 3-minute thesis competition may actually be the best format to fulfil expectations from both sides in an enjoyable way!

Top left: Chief Judge, Rosie Waldron, me and 3MT Chair, Professor