Earning a doctoral degree is a pinnacle of academic achievement reached after arduous years of study, examinations, forging partnerships with faculty advisors, research, funding, more research, and writing, all of which culminates in a dissertation defense before a committee of experts. It is a marathon process that generally takes between 5 and 10 years to complete.
Imagine summing up and presenting all of this work in three minutes.
This is the genius of the Three Minute Thesis (known as 3MT) competition, which was held at Mason for the first time this spring. An annual international competition that originated in 2008 at the University of Queensland, Australia, 3MT has quickly spread to more than 350 universities in 58 countries around the world.
The rules of the competition are straightforward. Each participant is a doctoral-level student who presents his or her research in three minutes with one visual aid. The presentation must be understandable to a general audience that may not have any background in the participant’s research area. Electronic media and props (including written notes, costumes, and laboratory equipment) are not permitted. Presentations are made in spoken word form, not performed as songs, poems, or rap. Competitors whose presentations exceed three minutes are disqualified.
The inaugural 3MT competition at Mason was sponsored by the Office of Graduate Education. Cody Edwards, associate provost for graduate education, had been interested in bringing the event to Mason since he learned about it at a meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools. When the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education included Mason in the R1 category of Highest Research Activity in 2016, the time was right to introduce 3MT to Mason.
Edwards emphasizes the great benefits in learning to concisely present a topic. “As a student it’s really a nice intermediate step in preparing yourself to be a professional in any field,” he says. “In most of our jobs, we have to talk to people, right? And in most of our jobs we don’t have 30, 45 minutes to make a case about something. We have to be succinct.”
He also sees how the 3MT format offers opportunities for the university to share its students’ work within the local community. “It’s imperative that we showcase more of the work that’s done within the university in terms of research,” he says. “You can have a beautiful website, and it conveys information ... but when I can sit and hear someone talk passionately about their research—it doesn’t matter if it’s in my field or not—I get excited about that. And I think that’s what you see from the community as well.”
Mason’s colleges and schools took on the competition with enthusiasm, with applications exceeding the initial space for 40. In all, 45 Mason students competed in the preliminary rounds. Many of these students represented the Volgenau School of Engineering, which prepared students with coaching, practice time, and faculty support at the competition itself. Four orators represented the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
But Edwards is encouraged that future competitions will see more participants from across the university. “What I’m hoping is that everyone will see that this is the right thing to do to showcase the talents of our students. I’ve had conversations with colleagues from school/colleges where we didn’t have the representation we were hoping for. So next year, knowing when it will happen, knowing what it’s going to look like, [they] will start recruiting within their own colleges this fall.
“And then we’d have a better mix of students. And that’s really what makes these competitions fantastic.”
June 06, 2017
