UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Graduate students at Penn State will put their communication skills to the test in the final round of the University’s second annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. The event, hosted by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School, is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, and will be livestreamed from the Nittany Lion Inn. The competition is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
The 3MT competition, an international initiative launched by the University of Queensland in Australia, challenges students to distill their complex research into a three-minute presentation for a general audience. Ten Penn State graduate students will compete for cash prizes while presenting their research on a variety of topics, including rare earth element extraction, urban heat reduction, energy-efficient buildings, tendon injuries, and traffic signal optimization.
The finalists, representing eight graduate programs, will vie for three awards. A panel of judges will award $1,000 to the first-place winner and $500 to the runner-up. A $500 People’s Choice Award, sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Association, will be determined by audience vote. The first-place winner also will advance to the regional 3MT competition hosted by the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools.
This year’s panel of judges includes Christina Grozinger, director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Mahmudul Hasan, doctoral candidate in chemical engineering; Jeff Middleton, alumnus and senior director of finance and global construction at Case New Holland Industrial Inc.; and Tonya L. Peeples, Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of the College of Engineering.
Final round competitors and their presentation titles are:
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Tanveer Ahmed, doctoral student in civil engineering, “Adaptive traffic signal control measures for urban network problems.”
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Brad Foster, doctoral student in molecular, cellular and integrative biosciences, “Investigating the Role of Mechanobiology in Driving Fatigue Loading Induced Tendon Degeneration.”
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Tricia Hart, doctoral student in nutritional sciences, “Eating Pecans as a Snack Reduced Heart Disease Risk Compared to Usual Diet in Adults at Increased Risk for Heart Disease.”
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Daisuke Hayashi, doctoral student in nutritional sciences, “A Mixed Methods Approach to Explore and Define Food Noise.”
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Marjan Karimizadkomarej, master’s student in landscape architecture, “Seeing is Believing: Realistic Water Visualizations for Better Stormwater Solutions.”
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Patrick Sarpong, doctoral student in energy and mineral engineering, “The potential of bioleaching in the recovery of lithium from Lithium Iron Phosphate battery waste.”
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Amin Sepehri, doctoral student in architectural engineering, “Buildings as Batteries via Smart Envelope.”
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Younes Shekarian, doctoral student in energy and mineral engineering, “Development of a chemical-free process using ozone for the recovery of cobalt (Co), manganese (Mn), and Nickel (Ni) from acid mine drainage (AMD).”
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Adam Smerigan, doctoral student in chemical engineering, “The Untapped Treasure in Toxic Waste: Fueling Modern Technologies Sustainably.”
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Tasneem Tariq, doctoral student in architecture, “How to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island Effect in Baltimore: Selecting Effective Mitigation Strategies Combining Simulation Study and Community Feedback.”
Community members interested in attending online or in person can register through the 3MT website.