The Three Minute Thesis competition will be returning to Kent State in October to test graduate students’ skills in presenting their research with one PowerPoint slide in three minutes.

Registration will be open from Sept. 14 to Oct. 10 for any graduate student with a research topic. Kyle Reynolds, director of graduate studies student services, says this event is a great opportunity to highlight the research contributions of graduate students in a way that is easily understandable to a general audience.

“If you’re a faculty member or student in communications,” Reynolds said. “You could go to a physics presentation and the goal of it is that the student in physics would be creating a presentation that a non-expert would be able to understand.”

Reynolds said he is most impressed with how many types of research are presented.  

“The presentation that won last year was a mathematics presentation that used mathematical equations to understand how gossip and rumors are spread,” he said. “On paper, you might think of mathematics as ‘boring’, but the student was really able to frame it in a way that people could relate to in their everyday lives.”

The preliminary rounds will take place Oct. 18 and 19 at noon in room 310AB of the Kent State Student Center. The top three presenters will compete in the final round Oct. 26 at 1 p.m. in the Kiva. The top three finalists will receive a monetary reward. First place receives $500, second place receives $300 and third place receives $200.

Reynolds said he expects between 45 and 60 participants this year.

Nate Burtzlaff is the graduate students and research/transportation reporter. Contact him at [email protected].