ATLANTA—College of Arts & Sciences students swept the competition at the university’s spring Three-Minute Thesis (3MT), winning in every category of the graduate student contest to quickly and simply explain research topics.
3MT is a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland in Australia in 2008. The premise is to develop academic, presentation and research communication skills. The competition supports the development of students’ capacities to explain their research in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
Six master’s and four doctoral students from multiple disciplines competed in a virtual version of the event on June 28. Competitors were given three minutes to present compelling orations on their thesis or dissertation topics and their significance. A panel of judges awarded first, second and third place prizes. The audience was also given a chance to vote for a people’s choice award in each degree category. The University Library and the Graduate School provided support for the competition.
The winners are:
Master’s Students
First Place, $500 travel award
Sabina Ali, M.A., Religious Studies
Title: Jewish Racialization, the ‘Jewish Gene,’ and the Perpetuation of Ashkenormativity in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Ancestry Testing in the United States
Advisor: Kathryn McClymond, Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Professor, Religious Studies
Second Place, $250 travel award
K.L. Long, M.A., African American Studies
Title: Untold Truths: Explorations of Intra-Group Colorism & the Experiences of Light-Skinned Women that Identify as Black
Advisor: Jonathan Gayles, Chair, Professor, African American Studies
Third Place and People’s Choice, $150 travel award
Vignesh Varadarajan, M.S., Computer Science
Title: Intelligent Vehicular Perception of Non-Line-of-Sight Environment using Visible Light Communication with Stereo Cameras
Advisor: Ashwin Ashok, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Doctoral Students
First Place, $500 travel award
Beena Meena, Ph.D., Astronomy
Title: Role of Supermassive Black Holes Winds in Galaxy Evolution
Advisor: D. Michael Crenshaw, Distinguished University Professor, Astronomy
Second Place, $200 travel award
Sarah Bramblett, Ph.D., English, Rhetoric and Composition
Title: Recollecting Romantic Rhetoric – An Inquiry into Categorical Confusion and Cohesion
Advisor: Lynée Gaillet, Distinguished University Professor, Chair, English
Third Place, $150 travel award
Rurik Tywoniw, Ph.D., Applied Linguistics
Title: Investigating Reading Behavior and Inference-making in Advanced L2 Reading Comprehension assessment tasks
Advisor: Scott Crossley, Professor, Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language
People’s Choice
Madhuri Siddula, Ph.D., Computer Science
Title: Privacy Preserving User Data Publication in Social Networks
Advisor: Yingshu Li, Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Professor, Computer Science
Along with more information about the competition, the winning presentation slides and videos are online and available to view.