2019 Three Minute Thesis Pitt Competition

The 3MT competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students. Developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), 3MT cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

All participants 2019 3MT Pitt competition

Participants in the 2019 3MT Pitt Competition.

The 2019 event was held April 1, 2019, in the Digital Scholarship Commons at Hillman Library and was co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the University Center for Teaching and Learning, and the University Library System.

2019 Eligibility Guidelines

The program is open to PhD students who have successfully completed the dissertation proposal defense (PhD candidate status) and are actively in the dissertation stage of training. To become a finalist in the 2019 Pitt Competition, students were required to have:

2019 University Competition Winners

First Place Prize—$1,000 travel grant

Piyusha Gade
Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Rational Design of Vascular Grafts in Aged Hosts

Piyusha Gade and Nathan Urban with 1st place prize check

Vice Provost Nathan Urban presents first-place prize to bioengineering student Piyusha Gade.
 

Runner Up and People's Choice Winner—$500 and $1,000 travel grants, respectively

Gerald Ferrer
Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering
Improving Rotator Cuff Tear Treatment Decisions

Gerald Ferrer receives runner-up and people's choice prize checks from Nathan Urban

Bioengineering student Gerald Ferrer receives runner-up and People's Choice Award prizes from Vice Provost Nathan Urban.
 

Runner Up—$500 travel grant

Jacqueline Lombard
History of Art & Architecture, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Constructing Racial Identity in Medieval European Art

Jacqueline Lombard receives runner-up prize from Vice Provost Nathan Urban

History of Art & Architecture student Jacqueline Lombard accepts runner-up prize from Vice Provost Nathan Urban.

2019 School and Online Competition Finalists

Michael Chiang
Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine
What Your Brain Thinks about Pain

Judicael-Briand Djoko-Takougue
Computer Engineering, School of Computing & Information
Practical and Secure Access Control on Untrusted File Sharing Platforms Using Client-side Trusted Hardware

Olivia Lanes
Physics & Astronomy, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Quantum Measurement with Superconducting Parametric Amplifiers

Ravi K. Patel
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine
Combatting Drug Resistance In Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Caitlin Schroering
Sociology, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
The Global Economy, Resource Conflicts, and Transnational Social Movements: Dimensions of Resistance to Water Privatization

Kristen Stack
Accounting, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business
The Unintended Costs of SEC Regulation

Akhila Veerubhotla
Human Engineering Research Laboratories, School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences
Towards Accessible Health and Fitness Tracking: From Walking to Wheelchair Propulsion