Presenting her thesis in three minutes — this was the challenge that Kelly Michie, a Ph.D. candidate in Biology, faced as she prepared for the 2017 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition.

“The 3MT competition really helped me think about how to distill my research down to the most essential components,” said Michie, who took home third place for her presentation, “Gotta Screen ‘Em All: Discovering Bacterial Genes Required for Wound Infection.” “It also helped me practice explaining my research in a way that was interesting and made sense to nonbiologists or even nonscientists.”

Since 2015, the Georgia Tech version of this competition that started at The University of Queensland, Australia, has challenged graduate students to explain their research in three minutes in a way that someone with no knowledge of the subject would understand.  

Registration for the 2018 competition is currently open until Oct. 3 to Tech doctoral students involved in dissertation research and master’s students involved in thesis research.  

“This experience taught me to not be afraid to get really creative and think outside of the box when designing a presentation,” Michie said. “Also, it was a good opportunity to practice effective presentation skills, such as posture and voice, which can often be overlooked in an academic setting.”

Workshops to assist students with their presentations will be offered beginning in late September, and the preliminary rounds of the competition will be held on Oct. 15, 18, and 22.

During the final round of competition on Nov. 7, the top three winners in both the master’s and Ph.D. categories will receive research travel grants and a chance to represent Tech at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools. An audience-selected People’s Choice Award will also be awarded.

For more information about Tech’s 3MT competition, watch the video, and visit grad.gatech.edu/3MT to register.