{"id":95488,"date":"2019-04-30T10:26:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=95488"},"modified":"2019-04-30T10:26:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:26:48","slug":"3-minute-thesis-competition-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2019\/04\/30\/3-minute-thesis-competition-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> students win over judges with 3 minute thesis"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Top 10 finalists, from left, front row, Priscilla Seaborn, Yanxiazi Gao and back row, Robert Casale, Sterling Higa, Hannah Moon, Flora Samis, Ryan Jones, Anna Mendoza, Sabrina Diemert, Brooke Friswold. (Photo credit: Chase Nuuhiwa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly 50 graduate students representing more than 35 different majors\/programs from across the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa<\/a> competed in the Three Minute Thesis Competition<\/a> on April 27.<\/p>\n

The event, started in 2008 by The University of Queensland, is now held at more than 600 universities around the world in 65 countries. Dean of Graduate Division<\/a> Krystyna Aune<\/strong> brought the competition to UH<\/abbr> Mānoa to give graduate students an opportunity to further develop their communication skills and share their research with the campus and the public.<\/p>\n

Graduate students must explain their master\u2019s or doctoral research in three minutes or less, with the aid of only a single PowerPoint slide. This is quite a feat considering it often takes hours to read out loud the average master\u2019s thesis or doctoral dissertation.<\/p>\n

Participants were evaluated on their ability to convey the gist of their research questions and results in a manner that is understandable and engaging, while avoiding trivializing their research.<\/p>\n

Finalists and winners<\/h2>\n
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Winners, from left, Sabrina Diemert and Brooke Friswold. (Photo credit: Chase Nuuhiwa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first-place and people\u2019s choice winner (chosen by audience members) was Sabrina Diemert<\/strong>. She won over the judges and audience members with a summary of her research on how wastewater can be used to track food-borne illnesses, such as salmonellosis. She argued that this has the potential to help public health officials as many people with food poisoning do not visit a doctor or hospital, but they definitely visit their bathrooms.<\/p>\n

The second-place winner was Brooke Friswold<\/strong>, who effectively explained how artificial light, especially in a small region on Oʻahu,<\/span> negatively impacts sea birds during their fledgling season.<\/p>\n

The competition finalists were: <\/p>\n