Graduate students pitch research projects in Three-Minute Thesis competition

Graduate students pitch research projects in Three-Minute Thesis competition

Sixteen East Carolina University graduate students took the stage Monday afternoon to pitch their research projects in the Three-Minute Thesis competition in the Main Campus Student Center ballrooms. Xanthia Saganis, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology, was named Grand Champion for her presentation on the factors that affect athlete reporting of concussion symptoms.

Three-Minute Thesis is an international competition for graduate students to present their research in three minutes or less using only one static slide. Begun at the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT concept has become global in scale. As the winner of ECU's 3MT competition, Saganis will compete in Dallas in March at the annual meeting of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools.

At ECU, the students were divided into three heats, with two students from each heat chosen to advance to the finals. Alumni judges Katrina Arnold, Beth Byrd, Neil Dorsey, Anthony Enoch, Paul Gemperline, Greg Hedgepeth, Jacob Parrish, Ron Preston and Eric Rivenbark rated the competitors in the categories of comprehension, content, engagement and communication.

The students' research included such topics as promoting ethical machine learning practices in finance; implementing realistic simulation to provide clinical experience for nursing students; the environmental impact of wastewater from swine productions; closing student achievement gaps; analyzing historic cemeteries for representations of marginalization and self-determination within African American communities; how air temperature affects sound modeling; and how the human brain manages stress, social interactions and other intense social environments.

"3MT is a fantastic opportunity for our graduate students to distill their research into an engaging narrative," said Dr. Debra Jackson, dean of the ECU Graduate School. "Our participants come from a diverse range of fields, each bringing their unique insights and groundbreaking ideas. This competition pushes them to communicate complex research in a way that's engaging, accessible and impactful."

Margaret Milteer, a master's student in the Department of Anthropology, said she signed up for the opportunity to practice talking about her research in front of an audience.

"I'm presenting at conferences this year, so I figured it would be good to do a three-minute presentation in front of a small group before I do a 15-minute presentation in front of a big one," she said. "It gave me some pointers on what I'm going to need to remember for future presentations."

Parrish '06, a graduate of the Master of Public Health program and now the vice president of capacity and throughput at ECU Health, said the 3MT concept wasn't around when he was in graduate school, but he was eager to participate when invited to help judge the competition. He was impressed with the students' ability to convey information to people who knew nothing about the topic in under three minutes.

"They knew their content cold, they had confidence in their message and they had great stage presence," he said. "They were able to, in a matter of seconds, convey the topic, and then through the rest of the time the details of their research. So they did a great job."

Saganis said she wanted to participate because she's interested in disseminating science to the masses and helping people understand research. She was stunned to be named the winner, she said.

"Not a lot of people in my program do this, because in the clinical program we're so strapped for time … so I wanted to really make an effort to squeeze it in with all the other stuff in my schedule," she said. "And it was definitely worth it. It feels like my thesis proposal and defense will be a breeze after doing this."

Along with Saganis, other winners included:

• Second place: Abigahill Simon, Department of Biology
• People's Choice: Rachael Johnson, Department of Biology
• Departmental Cup: Department of Biology

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