Three Minute Thesis Competition finals coming April 17

The listener's excitement is in hearing creative thesis ideas steeped in innovative graduate-level research, one after another. The challenge is to digest it in 180-second shots. That's the proven global popularity of the Three Minute Thesis contest, whose Purdue competition will be on April 17.

Graduate students will compete for cash prizes -- one of them awarded by the audience -- by condensing an endeavor that would take about a workday to present fully into a lucid summary of three minutes and one slide. The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a global research communication competition developed and trademarked by The University of Queensland in Australia. 

The competition equips graduate students with the academic, presentation, and communication skills necessary to explain their research to the general public in a clear and concise manner, while also providing them with the opportunity to put those skills to the test.

The 10 finalists will present their ideas at 7 p.m. in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center, Room 1055. The event is free and open to the public. A panel of judges will select the first- and second-place winners.

Graduate students will have three minutes to present a compelling discussion on their research topic, its significance and its relevance to the general public. The idea is not to engage in an exercise in trivializing or "dumbing down" research but to consolidate ideas and crystallize research discoveries. It is a celebration of the discoveries made by graduate students and will allow the broader community to learn about ongoing research at Purdue.

Go to http://www.purdue.edu/gradschool/gspd/3mt.html for more information.