Three Minute winners meet head-to-head in 2017 3MC competition

Monday, April 10, 2017

The Oklahoma State University Graduate College will host its second President’s Fellows’ Grand Three Minute Challenge (3MC) competition April 13 in the Student Union Theater at 3:30 p.m.

The 3MC competition celebrates the success of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) and Three Minute Presentation (3MP) in a head-to-head competition of winners from the OSU 2016 3MP and the 2017 3MT®. The 3MC is sponsored by the OSU President’s Fellows, a society made up of passionate and loyal OSU alumni and supporters of university priorities through the leadership of President Burns Hargis.

The first 3MT® competition at OSU was held in 2013. Two years later, OSU launched its 3MP competition, the first in the country. The 3MT® competition is reserved for thesis master’s and Ph.D. students, while the 3MP is for non-thesis students, education specialists and graduate certificate students. As with the 3MT® and 3MP, students in the Three Minute Challenge must present their thesis or dissertation research for the 3MT® winners or disciplinary non-thesis topic for the 3MP winners and its significance in less than three minutes, using only one PowerPoint slide, to a general audience. Students are judged on their communication style, comprehension of material and audience engagement.

Deepak Kumar, a master’s student in Food Science, was awarded first place for his presentation on increasing protein in the diet of people from developing countries using microbes to reduce malnutrition in the 3MT® finals last month. Kumar is currently gearing up to compete in the Grand Challenge.

"It’s a great feeling to move to the next level in the competition, and I look forward to competing with non-thesis folks,” he said. “Now that I have my script ready, I try to repeat it at least 20 times a day while walking or driving my car to work. My confidence increases every time I practice my speech."

The 3MT® and 3MP finalists and People’s Choice winners who will compete in the 3MC with Kumar are:

Natalie Miller, a non-thesis master’s student in communication sciences and disorders
Grant Lapke, a non-thesis master’s student in international agriculture
Tanner Roark, a non-thesis master’s student in international agriculture
Siddharth Suresh, a non-thesis master’s student in telecommunications management
Varsha Akkaloori, a non-thesis master’s student in business analytics
Deepak Kumar, a thesis master’s student in food science
Jennifer Rudd, a doctoral student in veterinary biomedical sciences
Joyce Nabissaalu, a doctoral student in design, housing and merchandising
Eranda Ekanayake, a thesis master’s student in mathematical and aerospace engineering
Christina Sharkey, a doctoral student in psychology

For more information, visit https://gradcollege.okstate.edu.