This annual event, which showcases graduate students' ability to distill their nine-hour thesis down to three minutes, returns to campus

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, an annual tradition that celebrates graduate students while they explain their thesis research in three minutes or less, will take place on Feb. 13, 2025, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom.

Eleven students will be competing in this event, which is free and open to the public, but registration is required. This year’s competitors include:

• Anna Deese, educational foundations, policy and practice
• Celeste Guiles, aerospace engineering
• Aoife Henry, electrical, computer and energy engineering
• Casey Hunt, ATLAS Institute
• Heiko Kabutz, mechanical engineering
• Heather Kenny-Duddela, ecology and evolutionary biology
• Casey Middleton, computer science
• Nandi Pointer, media studies
• Hunter Ray, aerospace engineering
• Anna Turner, media studies
• Marwa Yacouti, aerospace engineering

The 3MT event began in 2008 when the state of Queensland, Australia, suffered from a severe drought. To conserve water, residents were encouraged to time their showers, and many people had a three-minute egg timer fixed to the wall in their bathroom. The then-Dean of the University of Queensland Graduate School, Emeritus Professor Alan Lawson, decided to apply the same approach with his students in a first of its kind competition.

3MT challenges graduate students to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience. To prepare, beginning last fall, 31 students were asked to participate in a series of workshops focusing on storytelling, writing, presentation skills and improv comedy techniques. They then held a preliminary competition for the 16 remaining and whittled the competition down to eleven finalists.

The graduate students competing during this year’s 3MT finals will be evaluated by a panel of judges on their comprehension, content, engagement and communication. Judges for this year’s event are Waleed Abdalati, executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and professor of geography; Jared Bahir Browsh, director of critical sports studies and an assistant teaching professor; Robert Streeter, site supervisor at Polar Field Services and 3MT 2023 winner; and Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for leadership support and programming.

The winner of the competition will receive $1,500 in prize money and will have the chance to compete at the state and regional competitions as the University of Colorado Boulder’s representative. The runner-up and the People’s Choice winner, voted on by the live audience, will also receive funding.

More information about the competition is available on the Three Minute Thesis web page.