Graduate student participants in the inaugural Ohio University 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition (from left): Nikhil Dhinagar, Patrick Mose, Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, Reetobrata Basu, Golshan Madraki, Anne Allman, Fatemah Khalili and Sean McGraw. Photo credit: Peter Hayes
Eight graduate students showed off their research communication skills during Ohio University’s inaugural 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition Feb. 3.
Doctoral students Sean McGraw, Nikhil Dhinagar and Reetobrata Basu took top honors in the contest, which challenges students to describe their theses to the general public in a few minutes with only one visual aid.
The event was sponsored by the Graduate College to help students learn to effectively present their work to audiences outside of their area of specialization. The 3MT® competition, developed by The University of Queensland in 2008, is held at more than 200 higher education institutions in 18 countries, according to the 3MT® website.
At Ohio University’s first event, graduate students presented work on topics that ranged from international journalism and cancer to astrophysics and language studies.
McGraw, a graduate student in the College of Arts & Sciences, won first place for his presentation “Black holes: Little engines that control the evolution of galaxies.” His adviser is Joseph Shields of the Department of Physics & Astronomy.
Dhinagar, a graduate student in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology, won second place for his presentation “Non-invasive skin cancer detection.” His advisor is Mehmet Celenk of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Basu, a graduate student in the College of Arts & Sciences Interdisciplinary Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, won third place and the People’s Choice award for his presentation “To grow or not to grow: A melanoma powerplay.” His adviser is Shiyong Wu of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Edison Biotechnology Institute.
The event also featured the work of the following graduate students:
Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, Scripps College of Communication, “Reporting from the frontlines of Ebola: African bravery or suicidal professionalism?” (Adviser: Steve Howard)
Anne Allman, College of Arts & Sciences, “What happened to freedom? The policing of the American campus, 1964-2015.” (Adviser: Kevin Mattson)
Patrick Mose, Patton College of Education, “A phenomenological study of learner autonomy in less commonly taught languages.” (Advisor: David Moore)
Golshan Madraki, Russ College of Engineering and Technology, “An efficient algorithm to find the longest path in directed acyclic graph under structural and weight perturbation.” (Advisor: Robert Judd)
Fatemeh Khalili, Russ College of Engineering and Technology, “Turbo coded coherent MFSK improvement on extremely noisy channel.” (Advisor: Jeffrey Dill)
The judges of the competition were Geoffrey Dabelko, professor in the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs; Theda Gibbs, assistant professor in the Patton College of Education; David Koonce, associate dean of the Graduate College; Usha Matta, director of international student services for the Graduate College; and Kelee Riesbeck, assistant director of advancement communications and marketing for University Advancement.
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