Rapid‑fire research: Dal grad students prepare for Three‑Minute Thesis competition

How many innovative ideas can you learn about in 30 minutes?

At Dal’s Three-Minute Thesis competition: a lot.

This upcoming Wednesday, March 9, more than 100 of Dal’s top master’s and PhD students will take part in the fourth-annual competition, presenting their research to the best of their abilities. They only get one PowerPoint slide — and one chance to make an impression to the judges.

From their ranks, the judges will select the top candidates to move on to the finals Thursday night. Both the preliminary rounds and the finals are open to anyone to drop in and learn about the work of Dal’s grad students.

The competition is hosted by Dal’s Faculty of Graduate Studies. Alicia Kirk, senior thesis clerk and event organizer, is pleased with how the event has taken off this year.

“We have nearly double the participants we’ve had in any of the past years, this shows us that students perceive it to be a really valuable opportunity,” she says. “I had students and supervisors emailing me about the event before we even kicked it off this year. There seems to be a lot of energy and excitement for it.”

Focus and precision

Diane Ramsay, a master’s student in the Kinesiology, is preparing to take part in the competition.

“At first is is very difficult to summarize your whole thesis in three minutes,” she says. “But this is an important skill to have, especially when talk to future employers or individuals from different fields that you want to collaborate with, as they will want a concise and interesting summary of your study.”

Kirk agrees. “It’s becoming more and more important to be able to relay the value of your research briefly and clearly, without the jargon.”

“It’s also an awesome networking opportunity,” she adds. “We’ve seen so many students make connections with someone from another department that they never would have known about if it weren’t for this event bringing them together.”

Carolyn Wilson, a master’s student on the Agricultural Campus, has competed in previous years and plans to do so again this year.

“What makes it exciting is you get to hear about so many different projects that you’d never be exposed to without a competition like this,” she says. “You get to hear about research going on all across the school. It’s also nice to go back and see the new spins on projects you saw the year before.”

With a diverse and vast group of participants, this year’s Three-Minute Thesis competition is poised to be the best yet — some of Dal’s most exciting research explained with speed and precision.

Learn more: Three-Minute Thesis website