Mikyla Wood understands the importance of events for not only undergraduate students at the University of Idaho, but for graduate students as well.
An event coming up for graduate students is the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition on Feb. 7. During this competition, graduate students attempt to explain their research in three minutes in an easy to understand way.
The 3MT competition was first held in 2008 at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia, ever since this competition has been put on at other universities around the world. The 3MT program is a registered trademark of UQ.
UI started holding this competition in spring 2016. This is the third year that Wood has helped plan it. Wood works as a management assistant for the College of Graduate Studies (COGS) at UI.
“I think the dean (of COGS) liked the competition and he wanted an event specially for graduate students so they can learn how to practice their presentation skills,” Wood said.
Wood said at last year’s 3MT competition there were about 50 people in attendance. Wood said she’s hoping to get more people to come out and watch the competition.
“I think (the competition) helps them feel more recognized,” Wood said. “There’s a lot of stuff that feels
just focused for undergrads, and I think graduate students feel kind of left out sometimes, or there’s not as many resources for them.”
Wood encourages anyone to come watch. The competition is located in the Vandal Ballroom inside the Pitman Center.
3MT | Courtesy.
The competition starts at 1 p.m., is free and open to the public. The first place winner will receive $500, second place will receive $300 and a people’s choice voted by the audience will receive $200. Previous competition winners can be found on UI’s website.
The number of competitors is typically limited to 20 participants. Applications for the competition are no longer being accepted.
These students will be competing to attend the statewide competition in Boise, Idaho on Feb. 19. At this competition there will be graduate students from UI, Boise State University and Idaho State University.
“It’s interesting to learn about the research and creative acidity that our graduate students are participating in,” Wood said. “It’s only three minutes
per student, so it’s not a huge time commitment, but it allows you to get to know our graduate students (and) better get to know the research going on at the University of Idaho.”
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @HindbergNicole