Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition Expanded to University Level

After hosting the SENG Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition for four years, the Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E2I) of the School of Engineering (SENG) collaborated with the HKUST Office of Postgraduate Studies to jointly organize the first HKUST 3MT® Competition on March 27, 2018. The expansion of the competition from school to university level brought together a wider group of research students across campus and further promoted cross-schools interaction.

Subsequent to a two and a half days’ pre-selection interview, eight research postgraduate students from three schools and seven different countries were shortlisted for the final round. The judging panel of the final round included Prof Charles Ng, Associate Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, Prof King Lun Yeung, Associate Dean of Engineering (Research and Graduate Studies), Prof Ting Chuen Pong, Director of E2I, Prof Melody Chao, Associate Professor of Management, Prof Jenny Smith, Associate Professor of Humanities, and Prof Simon Chan, Associate Professor of Chemistry.

The finalists gave their 3MT® presentations to the audience, including students, faculty members, and staff, and exchanged experience and ideas of enhancing research communication skills. The champion of the 2017 SENG 3MT® Competition, Andrea Feng, also shared her experience of competing in the 2017 Asia-Pacific 3MT® Competition. Following an hour and a half’s presentations and discussion, Melody Jin Teng Chung, Bioengineering MPhil student under the supervision of Prof Ying Chau, won the championship and People’s Choice Award. The second and the third places went to Akriti Chadda, Bioengineering PhD student supervised by Prof I-Ming Hsing, and Billy Lai, Electronic and Computer Engineering MPhil student supervised by Prof Kei May Lau, respectively. Melody and Akriti will attend the 2018 Asia-Pacific 3MT® Competition to be held in Brisbane, Australia on September 27, 2018.

Developed by the University of Queensland, the 3MT® Competition cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. It increases students’ capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to non-specialist audience. Today the 3MT® Competition is being held at more than 600 universities and institutions in more than 60 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, Oceania, and South America.