![\"3mt-495x279\"](\"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/3mt-495x279.png\" "\\"3mt-495x279\\"")
The countdown is on for Brock graduate students to register for Brock’s 2015 Three Minute Thesis (3MT\u00ae) competition.<\/p>\nThe countdown is on for Brock graduate students to register for Brock’s 2015 Three Minute Thesis (3MT\u00ae) competition.<\/p>\n
The deadline is Friday, Jan. 23. Information about the contest and the online registration form is posted on the 3MT\u00ae website.<\/a><\/p>\n The contest is open to registered graduate students who are in their final stages of research in: Contest participants have three minutes, and not a second more, to talk about their research and why it matters in a way that will inform and captivate a non-specialist audience. Along with keeping to the three-minute timeframe, the contestants are limited to using only one static PowerPoint slide for the duration of the presentation.<\/p>\n A coaching session for participants is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 7 (time and location to be determined). The session is presented by Vitae Essential Skills<\/a> for Graduate Students and will be facilitated by Julia Course, actor and performance coach. Participants will learn strategies on how to: relax and prepare mind and body for a presentation, connect voice and gestures, hook the audience with a compelling opener, and rehearse techniques to minimize performance anxiety.<\/p>\n The contest will kick off in late February with a preliminary round from which the top presenters will advance to Brock’s 3MT\u00ae final held during the annual Mapping the New Knowledges Graduate Student Research Conference on Thursday, April 9.<\/p>\n The winner of Brock’s contest will receive $500 and the runner-up $250. The winner will also advance to the provincial 3MT\u00ae competition hosted by Western University on Thursday, April 23, 2015. The top finishers in Ontario move on to a 2015 national competition that is sponsored by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) and held in May.<\/p>\n Last year, Brock’s Leslie Nash, a master’s student in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, placed second in the province and was one of the finalists for the national contest.<\/p>\n “I decided to take part in the 3MT because it’s very different from presenting at conferences,” says Nash who is a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa. “I changed my 3MT\u00ae script many times as I prepared for the contest. I had to think carefully about how to explain my research in a clear and concise message and how to break down the science in a way that a general audience could understand. The 3MT\u00ae is a great opportunity for graduate students to work on communication skills.”<\/p>\n The 3MT\u00ae concept has had widespread international popularity since the University of Queensland launched it in 2008. In Canada, UBC ran the first university-based competition in 2011.<\/p>\n This year participants in the 3MT\u00ae and MNK conference events will earn credit toward a Vitae Essential Skills <\/a>certificate awarded by the Dean of Graduate Studies. To find out more about this certificate, please visit Vitae Essential Skills.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 a master’s by thesis
\n\u2022 a master’s by research project
\n\u2022 a PhD program
\nEligibility is also extended to graduate students who have successfully defended their thesis, but have not yet graduated.<\/p>\n