Judge-selected Honorable Mention in the College of Engineering Three Minute Thesis competition, after rebuilding her slides from the graduate-round feedback.
The Hanson Center for Communication at the University of Iowa's College of Engineering hosted a Three Minute Thesis competition this fall: three minutes to present your research topic to a general audience. I was awarded $100 as a judge-selected Honorable Mention. Earlier in October I also took part in the university-wide graduate student Three Minute Thesis competition. That round gave me feedback from the judges that I used to rebuild my slides and to sharpen how I discuss complex topics. On the left is the first slide I presented; on the right, the improved slide that earned me second place. The first time, I was far too technical — which was the lesson. I'm proud of the graphic I built for the second, using an image from the European Space Agency.
Slide comparison images: news/3MT_grad_slide.jpg (first), news/3mt_engineering.jpg (improved).