Minutes Matter: OU Graduate Students Explain Research in 180 Seconds

University of Oklahoma graduate students recently had an opportunity to carry out impactful research, which they then attempted to communicate with a non-specialist audience during a unique competition. The catch? They had only three minutes in which to accomplish their mission.

With only three minutes and a single slide as their prop, 10 graduate students on the Norman campus were selected to participate in the finals of OU’s fifth annual Three Minute Thesis Competition in February. Six OU-Tulsa students took part in a similar event in January.

The Three Minute Thesis Competition, or 3MT®, originated at Australia’s University of Queensland in 2008. The competition is now held at over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.

The Norman Graduate College hosted three days of preliminary competition rounds in early February, which included over 40 students from the Norman campus. Ten of these students were chosen to present their research at the final competition in Norman. More than 175 people attended the livestreamed and in-person 3MT® competition in Oklahoma Memorial Union on Feb. 18. Audience members voted on the People’s Choice Award, and judges, composed of OU faculty, determined the competition’s winner and runner-up.

“Our graduate students are innovators, and 3MT® allows them to showcase their work in an impactful way,” said Randall S. Hewes, dean of the Norman Graduate College. “This event is one of my favorites each year. It’s a fun way to support individual professional development while at the same time hearing about the incredible things students are doing across the university in their master’s and doctoral studies. I learn new, fascinating things at each one of these events.”

The first-place winner in the Norman campus competition was Anae Bain, with the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, who was awarded $2,000 for the presentation, “A basic building block for sustainable drug discovery.” Oyindamola Okuwa was awarded $1,500 and $1,000 as the runner-up and People’s Choice Award winner for the presentation “Women’s decision-making power and contraceptive use in Nigeria.” Okuwa represented the team’s doctoral work, conducted with the sociology and criminology departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I spoke with several colleagues, professors and speakers to prepare for the competition,” Bain said, noting that for her, the most challenging aspect of preparing for the competition was “summarizing five years of specialized work into a three-minute sales pitch.

“Additionally, my doctoral work is extremely specialized,” she said, “so I had a challenging time breaking down my research into a more digestible form that could be easily understood without a chemistry background.”

Bain, a graduate research assistant with the Sharma Research Group, which engages in the synthesis, assessment and modification of potential therapeutic leads derived from or inspired by natural products for the treatment of cancer, bacterial infections and neurological disorders, described 3MT® as a great public speaking experience, adding, “I’ve always considered myself extremely shy and wanted to be more confident in public speaking. The competition was extremely helpful in developing a basic pitch that I ended up using for job interviews and presentations. Also, it boosted my public speaking confidence 1,000-fold.

“Too, I wanted to challenge myself with a public speaking event as a way to ‘round off’ my time at OU,” Bain continued. “Also, whenever my parents (both accountants) or family would ask, ‘What is your research about?’ I found it difficult to relay my research to people without a STEM background. Preparing for the competition, I focused much less on the intricacies and results of my research and focused more on its impact and innovation.”

Six OU-Tulsa students undertook the Three Minute Thesis challenge in front of a virtual audience of faculty, staff and students on Jan. 18. Three of the six earned special accolades: Muhammed Umar Bin Farooq, Electrical and Computer Engineering, received first place; Katie Fields, Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum, received the People’s Choice Award; and Muhammad Sajid Riaz, Electrical and Computer Engineering, was named runner up.

Farooq, whose presentation was titled “Race Against Time: 5G Aware Intelligent Route Selection for Ambulances,” observed: “The 3MT® competition is a great learning experience. It teaches to mold research presentation for a non-technical audience. Now, even my parents have a basic understanding of my research because of 3MT® competition.”

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The 3MT® competition has boosted the research profiles of other OU students who participated in previous years. Because of his success in previous competitions, including last year’s Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT® competition, OU alumnus and former graduate student Ali Rassi was invited to a 3MT celebratory event in February run by the National Council of Graduate Schools.

Rassi’s 3MT® presentation focused on his research on 3D printed implants – a technique that may ultimately help those with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) or other joint health issues. Rassi, who graduated in 2021 with his Master’s in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Gallogly College of Engineering, just finished an internship at Formlabs, the biggest 3D printing consumer company in the United States.

By Jerri Culpepper

Article Published:  Wednesday, March 9, 2022

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