“Earthworms Can and Will Make Changes in Theater” was chosen as the number one Three Minute Thesis presentation at the finals for Kent State’s eighth annual competition held on Friday Oct. 28.
The top nine presenters who had advanced from two previous preliminary rounds made their presentations in the Kiva. Students were given three minutes and one PowerPoint slide to make a concise and engaging presentation.
Preliminary rounds included 15 students from various colleges on October 20-21.
After Friday’s 3MT final presentations, the top three winners were chosen by two judges, Dr. Tianyuan Guan, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor in the College of Public Health and Aviad Israeli, Ph.D., professor and senior academic program director for Executive MBA and Executive Education in the Graduate Office of the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship. Audience members selected the People’s Choice Award by using a QR code.
The 3MT winners are as follows:
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First Place $500 - Kathalina Thorpe, Masters in Theater Design, Earthworms Can and Will Make Changes in Theater.
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Second Place $300 - Emilee Hart, Doctoral in Human Evolutionary Biology, The Color Changing Gibbon.
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Third Place $200 - Mandalynn Slupek, Doctoral in Neuroscience, The Surprising Role of Astrocytes in Addiction.
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People's Choice $200 - Muhammad Naveed, Doctoral in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, Clearing A-beta Plaques by Magnetothermal Stimulation to Cure Alzheimer’s Disease.
Manfred van Dulman, Ph.D., senior associate provost of Academic Affairs and dean of the Graduate College, attended the Three Minute Thesis presentations and said the competition showcases some of the best and brightest students at Kent State.
The trademarked name of this event is Three Minute Thesis, but students at Kent State can present the research they are conducting for a thesis, dissertation, terminal project, or any other research project in which they are engaged. Students may present research that is in progress.
3MT was developed at The University of Queensland (UQ) and is now offered at hundreds of universities throughout the world. The first 3MT competition was held at UQ in 2008 with 160 candidates competing.
The goal of the competition is for participants to develop academic, presentation, and research communication skills, and to support the development of graduate students' capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes in a language appropriate to an intelligent, but non-specialist audience.