WPI Three Minute Thesis Competition
The 2024 WPI 3MT Competition took place on February 16 from 3-4:30 PM in the Campus Center Odeum. The 2025 WPI 3MT competition will take place in February 2025.
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is an academic competition that challenges PhD students to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience using only a single static slide. 3MT celebrates the discoveries made by PhD students and encourages their skill in communicating the importance of research to the broader community. The competition takes place annually at numerous universities around the world and was originally founded by the University of Queensland in Australia. WPI hosted its inaugural 3MT competition in 2018, and runs the competition annually each Spring. The 2024 3MT competition took place from 3:00-4:30 PM on February 16, 2024 in the WPI Campus Center Odeum.
PhD students that have completed their qualifying exam or equivalent milestone in their program are eligible to participate. Student presentations will be evaluated by a panel of judges that will award a first place prize of $1000 and a runner-up prize of $500. The audience will select one presentation for a peoples’ choice prize of $250.
A workshop is run for for those competing each year, and the date and time and is provided to competitors.
Past 3MT Competitions:
2024 3MT Competition Awards:
Winner ($1,000):
Kathleen Cachel, Data Science, "Technologies for Fair Consensus Decision-Making"
Runner up ($500):
Tess Meier, Robotics Engineering, "Let’s give her a hand folks! How an exoskeleton can be used to study the brain after trauma"
People's Choice ($250):
Sara Heidarnezhad, Civil, Environmental, & Architectural Engineering, "Durability of Enzymatic Self-healing Concrete"
Honorable Mention ($100):
Elizabeth DiLoreto, Biology and Biotechnology, "Changing Our Brains with Bacteria"
2023 3MT Competition Awards:
Winner and People's Choice ($1,250):
Sathya Narayanan Jagadeesa, Chemical Engineering, "Storing Green Energy in Rust"
Runner-up and WPI 2023 Northeast Association of Graduate Schools 3MT Competitor:
Elizabeth DiLoreto, Biology and Biotechnilogy, "Shaping Brain Function Using Microbes"
2022 3MT Competition Awards:
Winner and 1st People's Choice ($1250):
Jihan El Ouaragli, Civil and Environmental Engineering, “Smart thermal battery for thermal energy storage and thermal comfort: Storing heat until needed with just moist air around you”
Runner-Up ($500 prize):
Caroline Muirhead, Biology and Biotechnology, “How does the brain make decisions?"
2nd People's Choice:
Dayna Mercadente, Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, "Killing Cancer: How to target cancer cells that are pretending to be normal"
2021 3MT Competition Awards:
Winner and People's Choice ($1250):
Munevver Elif Asar Sarikaya, Mechanical Engineering, “Smart Dryers for Paper Manufacturing”
Runner-Up ($500 prize):
Avery Closser, Learning Sciences & Technologies, “Seeing is Perceiving: Making Math Easier"
2020 3MT Competition Awards:
Winner ($1000):
Noah McQueen, Chemical Engineering, A Rock-Solid Approach to Removing Carbon Dioxide from Air
Runner up ($500):
Megan Mancuso, Biomedical Engineering, Measuring Load-Driven Bone Adaptation in the Forearm of Healthy Women
People's Choice ($250):
Zachary Goldblatt, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical regulation of cell survival
2019 WPI 3MT Competition
2019 3MT Winner ($1,000):
Veronica Kimmerly
Fire Protection Engineering
Presentation Title: Open Burning of Trash – The Problem No One Wants to Talk About
2019 3MT Runner-up and People’s Choice Winner ($750):
Ananthalakshmy Krishna Moorthy
Aerospace Engineering
Presentation Title: CubeSat: One step closer to Earth
2018 Inaugural WPI 3MT Competition
sessions held on both the main campus and the Gateway campus with separate winners at each.
2018 Main Campus Awards:
Winner: Lakshmy Krishna Moorthy, Aerospace Engineering
Runner Up and People’s Choice: Tyler Reese, Mathematical Sciences
2018 Gateway Awards:
Winner: Lida Namin, Chemical Engineering
Runner Up (Tie): Caitlin Walde, Materials Science and Engineering
Runner Up (Tie): Douglas Reilly, Biology and Biotechnology
People’s Choice: Chris Chute, Biology and Biotechnology