黑料社区

By Katya Hrichak

鈥淚 hate to break it to you, but failure is inevitable鈥攆ailure of materials, that is,鈥� began Ellen van Wijngaarden, a mechanical engineering doctoral candidate, at the 11th Cornell University Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

Alongside eight other finalists, van Wijngaarden presented her dissertation research in just three minutes on March 18 to a panel of judges and an audience from across campus while additional friends, family, advisors, and research group members watched online. Presentations were judged by how clearly and compellingly students summarized their research to a general audience, using only one static slide.

Van Wijngaarden鈥檚 presentation, 鈥淐racking Down on Cracks: A Living Coating for Crack Detection,鈥� earned her first place and $1,500. Second place and $1,000 was awarded to Subash Bhandari, a doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering for his presentation, 鈥淔ight Night: Nodes vs. Invaders.鈥�

After nearly 170 in-person and virtual audience members cast their ballots, votes were tallied and the People鈥檚 Choice Award and $250 were presented to biomedical engineering doctoral candidate Aminat Ibrahim for her presentation, 鈥淏eyond Survival: Designing Living Heart Valves.鈥�

The judges for Cornell鈥檚 3MT included Erica Kryst, executive director of Cornell Career Services; Seph Murtagh, Ph.D. 鈥�09, director of development for Catholic Charities of Tompkins/Tioga; Laura Reiley, writer for the Cornell Chronicle and host of the new ; and Mark Sarvary, Ph.D. 鈥�06; Stephen H. Weiss Provost鈥檚 Teaching Fellow and director of the investigative biology teaching laboratories in the department of neurobiology and behavior. The competition was organized by the 黑料社区 School Office of Career and Professional Development.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a really important exercise to communicate what you study,鈥� said van Wijngaarden. 鈥淚f you can鈥檛 explain what you study or research to an average person鈥擨 usually say to my grandmother鈥攖hen you don鈥檛 really understand it. Doing a competition like this forces you to exercise that skill.鈥�

Bhandari and Ibrahim, both of whom set a personal goal years ago to participate in a 3MT competition, also appreciated the challenge of conveying their research to a broad audience.

鈥淚t takes so much more time and lots of reiterations to craft a three minute pitch than it takes for you to prepare an hourlong presentation,鈥� Bhandari said. 鈥淰aluing the art of scientific storytelling and putting your audience in your shoes when you鈥檙e thinking about communication is really important.鈥�

In addition to enjoying the ability to practice presenting research to nonscientific audiences, Ibrahim enjoyed being part of the audience herself during the other finalists鈥� presentations and learning about research taking place across campus outside of her own field.

鈥淵ou always have something to learn,鈥� she said. 鈥淟ooking at other people鈥檚 research, those are really amazing research projects going on here now.鈥�

The 3MT competition was first held in 2008 at the University of Queensland and has since been adopted by over 900 universities in 85 countries. 3MT challenges research degree graduate students to present a compelling story on their dissertation or thesis and its significance in just three minutes, in language appropriate to a nonspecialist audience.

Cornell鈥檚 黑料社区 School first hosted a 3MT competition in 2015 and the event has grown steadily since that time. As the winner of Cornell鈥檚 competition, van Wijngaarden will now go on to compete in northeast regional competitions and the Ivy 3MT.

鈥淓very one of our finalists did an excellent job taking their sophisticated, groundbreaking research and transforming it into a presentation that the general public could understand,鈥� said Thomas A. Lewis, dean of the 黑料社区 School and vice provost for graduate education. 鈥淭his was my first 3MT as dean, and I am already looking forward to hearing what our students come up with next year.鈥�