3 minute thesis mcgill

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National 3-MINUTE Thesis Competition

Canadian Graduate Student Atia Amin of McGill University Wins 2022 North American 3MT Competition

by cags | Dec 13, 2022 | 3MT® , CAGS News , FEATURE POST SLIDER

  The first place prize at the 2022 North American 3MT Competition has been won by Canadian...

A Master’s student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Concordia University has been named Canada’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) champion.

by cags | Jun 12, 2019 | 3MT® , CAGS News

CAGS is pleased to announce the People’s Choice winner for this year’s Canada’s 3MT competition.

12 Canadian 3MT® Finalists. The winner of the People’s Choice Award is up to You!

by cags | May 10, 2019 | 3MT®

2018 National 3-Minute Thesis Competition

by cags | Jun 6, 2018 | 3MT® , Prizes

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Presenting a thesis in three minutes – en français

In April, Penalva placed first in McGill’s MT180 (Ma thèse en 180 secondes) competition, the French-language version of the 3MT (Three-minute thesis) event, with her presentation La Maladie d’Alzheimer: Avant d’oublier . Two months later, she placed third in the national final , hosted by l’Association canadienne-française pour l’avancement des sciences (ACFAS) at Université Laval in Quebec City.

The winner of McGill’s English-language 3MT competition, Atia Amin, will take part in the English-language national finals in Montreal in November, after winning the Eastern Regional Finals in June .

The premise of the competition is simple: explain your research in just three minutes to a non-scientific audience, with no props other than a single slide. The competition, which originated at Australia’s University of Queensland in 2008, places a premium on performance and storytelling, and serves to help make scientific research relatable to ordinary people.

Grew up around the world, chose McGill

Penalva, a Franco-Cameroonian, grew up in seven countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. She arrived at McGill in 2016 to begin her bachelor’s degree in physiology, completing an undergraduate research project where she studied the transmission of painful stimuli in the nervous system of C. Elegans. That experience, along with her volunteer work at the Montreal General Hospital motivated her to zero in on Alzheimer’s disease for her graduate studies.

She chose McGill because of its location in a French-speaking city, and its international renown in medical sciences.

“I have now grown to love McGill and Montreal, from its calm freezing winters to its lively bright summers, I consider it my new home,” Penalva said. “This is in part why I chose to continue my graduate studies here, in addition to the fact that the Integrated Program of Neuroscience at McGill is recognized as a leader for graduate studies in neuroscience in North America, and worldwide.”

She began her master’s studies in the fall of 2019 with a project on molecular pathways involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. She applied to take her PhD candidacy exam early and began her PhD in the fall of 2021. She hopes to graduate by the end of 2024.

Penalva, who also has a background in theatre and dance, got involved with the 3MT/MT180 contest to make her graduate studies a little more interesting.

“You can ask any PhD student and they’ll tell you that in grad school, things tend not to go the way you expect them to with setbacks and failures,” she said. “Therefore, I try to take as many opportunities to make my doctorate as fun and exciting as possible outside of my experiments.”

Keeping the listener involved

For Penalva, taking part in 3MT/MT180 competitions has been an eye-opener.

“You rapidly realize that there are many notions that you take for granted when you explain your research to other people in your field,” she says. “For example, in my case I assume the person knows how a neuron works or how proteins are made and transported in a cell to exert their functions. This is not something you can do in the setting of the 3MT/MT180. You thus have to find ways to introduce key concepts in a clear, concise fashion such that your research makes sense to someone who’s never heard about it before.”

While graduate students are trained to be as detailed and precise as possible, the 3MT/MT180 competition forces students to zoom out of their projects and find ways to be scientifically accurate while not being too technical.

“On top of summarizing, which is hard enough, you need to keep your talk exciting, keep the listener involved. Thankfully at McGill, we have a dedicated team of coaches that walk us through the process of cutting down on information and keeping only what is crucial about our work while weaving a story for the audience. This is done through two major training sessions where all the students work together and practice their speeches on each other.”

Penalva’s subject matter, Alzheimer’s disease, is relatively well known among the public – something which makes her presentations easier.

“The more removed from common knowledge your subject is, the more difficult it may be to present to the audience, I was thus lucky in this sense,” she says. “However, an unknown disease or project can also make for a great talk as the audience can come out of it feeling like they truly learned something new.”

As she sets her sights on completing her PhD, Penalva is looking to encourage other grad students at McGill to take part in the competition – particularly on the French side.

“There are plenty of bright francophone researchers at our school that could  give great speeches at the French nationals. It is also a great opportunity to network with other francophone students and learn about research conducted in francophone universities across the country.”

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The Douglas Research Centre

Affiliated with McGill University and the Montreal West Island IUHSSC

Douglas students chosen as finalists for McGill’s 3-minute thesis

March 15, 2023.

Once again, McGill has organized a Three Minute Thesis| Ma thèse en 180 secondes challenge , and had over 150 applicants. Over several weeks, candidates gave their 3-minute talks and 15 finalists have been selected. We are extremely pleased to announce that some of our own Douglas trainees have made it to the finalist stage.

Congratulations to Lyne Baaj (Rabin Lab), Claudia Belliveau (Mechawar Lab), Samuel Calmels (Debruille Lab), Candice Canonne (Mechawar Lab) and Pascale Ibrahim (Turecki Lab) , who have been selected as finalists for McGill’s 3-MT!

These talks are organized in partnership with Acfas (Ma thèse en 180 secondes) and The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®; founded by the University of Queensland), an internationally recognized competition for thesis-based graduate students. McGill’s winner will go on to represent the university in these provincial and national competitions.

You are cordially invited to join us for this exciting event where you’ll have the opportunity to cheer on our candidates and vote for the People’s Choice Award. Judges will award 1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd  place winners.  3MT/MT180 Presentations will be given in English or French.

You can attend the event in person (registration required) or online:

Wednesday, March 29 @ 3-5pm McGill Faculty Club (3450 McTavish)

There is a wine & cheese after

Registration:  https://www.mcgill.ca/skillsets/3mt180-final-rsvp

Livestream on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/live/IJ9-FGvA5wQ?feature=share

Teaching for Learning @ McGill University

Discussing what matters in higher education.

Sharing our research, 3 minutes at a time

What can you teach me in 3 minutes? The learning implications of discovering multitasking neurons in the prefrontal cortex? The social impacts of neoliberal economic policies in post-Mao China? How about the nature of energy-storage limitations that hold back complete transitions to renewable resources like solar energy? What about an entire PhD thesis? Better yet, could you teach a 5 th grader an entire PhD thesis in just 3 minutes?

Every year, graduate students from across McGill come together to explain their thesis research in a way that anybody can understand. The catch? They only have three minutes and one slide to do it. This is McGill’s 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and this year it will take place March 12 th in Tanna Schuclich Hall. Every year, Teaching and Learning Services and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies collaborate to coach over 100 graduate students in delivering a 3MT. In the 2019 competition, 18 graduate students will compete in English and French for the top prize and the chance to compete at the national level.

Originating from the University of Queensland in 2008, today over 650 universities across the world host a 3MT competition. The competition challenges graduate students to make their research accessible and understandable to a non-specialist audience (i.e., anyone not in their field), while not sacrificing communicating their methods, results, and the broader implications of their work. A panel of judges decides the winners based on how well the presenter engaged the audience, the comprehensiveness of their presentation, and their ability to communicate the research clearly and concisely.

McGill’s 3MT participants attend two or more training sessions, which include multiple opportunities for practice and peer feedback (written and oral) to hone their public speaking skills and develop their 3MT presentation. In addition to comments from fellow participants, Teaching and Learning Services staff and student employees, as well as several communication experts from across campus, provide coaching throughout the process. Each presenter is filmed delivering their 3MT and while receiving oral feedback from their peers and coaches. While many participants are apprehensive about watching themselves on video, they regularly cite reviewing these videos and the feedback as the most useful aspect of the training.

While the competition is fun and full of pithy presentations from young experts that fill the audience with hope, the students’ acquisition and mastery of knowledge mobilization (KMb) skills throughout the training is the most valuable lesson learned through 3MT. With respect to academia, KMb is the concept of sharing research widely to build awareness and enable informed action ( researchimpact, 2014 ). The importance of decentralizing academic knowledge from the ivory tower and making it accessible to the broader public is crucial to creating a well-informed citizenry; a goal that becomes increasingly difficult in the era of foreign propaganda on Facebook and widespread distrust of traditional authorities, such as government and academia.

Beyond the 3MT, KMb has become a standard component of many research-funding applications, including SSHRC, NSERC, and CIHR. Funders want the results of the research to have the maximum impact, which means sharing the results as widely as possible while maintaining the nuance and cautious certainty of academia. Science communication to a non-scientific audience, KMb by a different name, is sometimes a learning outcome for undergraduate science programs ( Ferris, 2019 ).

Teaching and Learning Services supports several research initiatives and courses across campus to help students develop their KMb abilities. For instance, Prof. Paul Yachnin assigns his English students the task of delivering a 10-minute presentation (without notes) on whether the works of Shakespeare are still relevant to today’s society. The students participate in a modified 3-Minute Thesis workshop to prepare. Yet, the 3-Minute Thesis is just one tool that educators can use to build their students’ KMb skills; it is by no means the only initiative at McGill to promote KMb. For instance, Prof. Terry Hebert requires his pharmacology students to “translate” scientific articles into laymen terms ( Xing, 2016 ). And students in Diane Dechief’s CCOM 314 course at the McGill Writing Centre have to record a podcast to educate Montreal high school students in science ( Samuel, 2017 ).

In a world where the integrity of our media, academic institutions, and science as a whole are questioned, academics have an increasing responsibility to share their research with the public in a manner that is both transparent and easy to understand. Teaching and Learning Services is willing to support any instructors looking to incorporate the 3MT principles of brevity, comprehensibility, clarity, and explaining implications for broader society into their class assignments, as well as other opportunities for KMb in the classroom.

If you want to see knowledge mobilization in action, be sure to attend the 3MT finals this year!

Photo credit: Gabriel Helefant

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3-Minute Thesis competition delivers (sound) bite-sized research excellence

While the panel of six judges deliberated in a small exhibition space in the historic Redpath Museum, Professor Josephine Nalbantoglu, Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, offered a succinct summation of the event to the audience of McGill’s 3MT competition. “Every year I say it’s the best and this year is no different,” said Prof. Nalbantoglu. “The presentations were excellent and the judges have a very challenging task of choosing winners.”

A challenging task it was, and after 30 minutes of careful deliberation, Jay Olson, a Ph.D. candidate in Psychiatry was named 3MT (3-Minute Thesis) winner and Gabrielle Houle, a Ph.D. candidate in Human Genetics, was named MT180 (Ma thèse en 180 secondes) winner in McGill’s annual competition. Surashri Shinde, a M.Sc. student in Experimental Surgery, was awarded the People’s Choice award. This year marks McGill’s 7th annual 3MT. Held on March 20, 14 graduate students captivated the audience with concise presentations of their research, delivered in three minutes or less.

“To prepare participants to perform at their best, McGill offered in-depth presentation skills training over a period of seven weeks and it’s obvious from the caliber of presentations today that the training worked,” said Prof. Nalbantoglu, referencing the weeks of preparation and training provided by McGill’s SKILLSETS program. Through workshops and qualifying heats, coaches, professors, and peers from across McGill gave each participant constructive feedback on their public speaking and presentation skills.

For Jay Olson, the skills training had very practical implications “3MT training gave me the chance to practice rewording my research for a general audience and get instant feedback on what was clear and what wasn’t,” he said. Olson delivered a compelling presentation on the power of placebos, with a particular emphasis on their benefits to children suffering from migraines and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Beyond the ability to fine-tune the presentation, participation in the 3MT offered a new – or even a renewed – perspective on graduate student research. “3MT forced me to take some steps back and see the big picture of my project; it reminded me the social impact of my work and encouraged me to continue,” said Gabrielle Houle. Houle, a Ph.D. candidate in Human Genetics, will now represent McGill at the French-language Canadian National Competition in Chicoutimi, sponsored by l’Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS). During the McGill final, Houle’s confidence and knowledge were on display as she explained essential tremors and her research into discovering causes and potential treatments for this poorly-understood hereditary condition.

Olson and Houle were selected by a panel of six judges that included three McGill alumni, Didier Jean-Francois (biotechnology consultant, McGill B.Sc. ‘97); Judith Ritter (radio

and print journalist, McGill M.A. ‘72); and Susan Pollock (Project Training Leader, CAE Inc., McGill B. Eng ‘98); two Montréal city councillors Cathy Wong and Valérie Patreau; and Dr. Laura Winer (Director, Teaching and Learning Services). The judges represented a diverse complement of backgrounds, including biotechnology, journalism, flight simulation, youth development, sustainable innovation and educational technology.

“[The competition] was such a pleasant experience, and a great way to get exposed to some cool research happening right now,” said 3MT/MT180 judge Didier Jean-Francois after the event.

Fortunately, the McGill community does not need to wait an entire year to witness another 3MT; McGill will host Canadian Association of Graduate Studies (CAGS) Eastern Regional 3MT competition on  Wednesday, April 18,  in the Thomson House Ballroom. Eleven student representatives from universities from Quebec, Newfoundland and the Maritimes will compete to advance to the  CAGS national competition .

As this event is designed to enable graduate students to convey the significance of their research to a non-specialist audience, feedback and participation from members of the community are as important as the final decision from the panel of invited judges. The McGill 3MT final competition – and the upcoming Canadian Regional Finals on  April 18  – is free and open to the public. Audience members are encouraged to cast a vote for their favourite presentation through in-person voting or online polling for the People’s Choice Award.

For McGill’s 3MT competition, Surashri Shinde connected with the audience and won their support as she expertly described how neutrophils behave as an individual’s own “Spiderman” in the body’s fight against cancer. For Surashri, the ability to connect to a broad audience was a driving motivation for her to participate in the 3MT program, and she urges future participants to think similarly.

“I would definitely encourage people to participate next year as it is a wonderful opportunity to share your research with a wide audience,” she said. ‘It is also a great way to learn about the other amazing research that is being conducted from various disciplines by fellow McGill graduate students.”

3MT is more than just a competition to celebrate a few winners. It’s a showcase of the tremendous research conducted by graduate students across the world: students from over 60 different countries participate annually. “I think we have to have the students come back in about three years’ time and give us another three minutes at the end of their project, because it is fascinating, and I’m sure it’s going to continue that way,” said Prof. Nalbantoglu.

Registration to attend the Canadian Eastern Regional Final is now open, and may be accessed  here .

April 11, 2018

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Communicating Research Relevance: The Three Minute Thesis Competition 2024

Communicating complex scientific information in a succinct and engaging manner, College of Life Sciences graduate students presented their compelling research in a mere three minutes. Competing in the College’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, students not only conveyed the general content of their work, but also its relevance to an audience not privy to their field of study. This year’s competitors demonstrated the significance of their work and its potential to bless the lives of many within our global community.

Winners of the college 3MT competition were awarded cash prizes, with the first-place position receiving $1,000, second $600, and third $300. The first-place winner will participate in a broader campus-wide competition.

Amongst several thought-provoking presentations, the winners of the competition were:

1st: Jared Steele (EXSC)— Leveraging SuperShoe Technology for Clinical Care

SuperShoes enhance running performance by decreasing the amount of oxygen a runner needs. But does it have the same effect on everyday walking? Steele conducted a study that showed similarly significant results for SuperShoe users who walk. This means that SuperShoes could be used to decrease the metabolic cost put on patients who begin to walk again after an operation or illness.

2nd: Kevin Gray (NEURO)— The Effect of Redox Changes on Optic Tectum Development and Behavior

Gray is shedding light on how symptoms of autism may develop due to improper development in a part of the brain called the superior colliculus. By studying a comparable structure in zebrafish called the optic tectum, Gray is on his way to understanding more about what autism looks like in the brain and how we can treat it.

3rd: Jacob Herring (NDFS)— Diabetes Research: What Are We Really Studying?

Herring says that we might not be studying diabetes the right way. He noticed that the sugar concentration of the cultures used to study diabetes were significantly higher than sugar concentrations in diabetic individuals. Herring decided to make a sugar-accurate culture that will allow scientists to study what’s actually going on with diabetes.

Other contestants and their presentations:

• Rachael David Prince—The Great Wall of Bacteria: Capsules
• Kaylee Draughon—Evaluating Cheatgrass as an Ecological Trap for Burrowing Owls
• Annalie Martin—Neurexins and Zebrafish: Neurodevelopmental Disorders Getting Fishy
• Ricard Noriega—Comparative Analysis of Comorbidity Prevalence in Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes: A Cross-Sectional Study in El Paso, Texas
• Clara Smith—More Invested and Knowledgeable Biology Teachers

Benjamin Crookston, professor of public health and associate dean in the College of Life Sciences who conducted the event, says that “it has been rewarding to see [students] do this each year as they learn to communicate their work effectively to a general audience.”

The university-wide 3MT competition will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, March 21, in the Wilkinson Student Center Varsity Theatre. First-place winner Jared Steele will compete against students from other colleges for additional cash prizes.

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Upcoming events, save the date: three minute thesis finals.

Mark your calendars for next Tuesday, March 19 from 6 to 7 p.m., when the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) finals will be held live in Halifax at the McInnes Room in the Dalhousie Student Union Building.

For more details, visit dal.ca/events

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2024 three minute thesis (3mt) competition, march 20 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm.

• This event has passed.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is a competition for graduate students to develop and showcase their research communication skills.

The 2024 final round competition will be held on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 in G10 Biotechnology Building. We will also offer a virtual attendance option by Zoom for those outside of Ithaca. Attend and vote for your favorite presentation for the People’s Choice Award!

3MT challenges research degree students to present a compelling story on their dissertation or thesis and its significance in just three minutes, in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. In addition to the first place and second place winners from among the finalists, audience members on March 20 will be asked to select a People’s Choice Award Winner.  

Register to attend .

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