3 MINUTE THESIS (3MT) COMPETITION - CANADA


3MT is an annual competition where graduate students (M.Sc. and Ph.D. level) present their research and its broad significance to audience in a plain language in 3 minutes or less time. As a visual aid a single static slide is allowed during the entire presentation. No props or additional audio-visual tools can be used. 3MT was developed by The University of Queensland (Australia) in 2008. Since then many other universities around the world have launched similar competitions.

3MT provides an opportunity for graduate students to develop and improve much-needed communication skills. By learning how to effectively explain their work to non-specialists they can become better speakers and increase their chances of success in the job market.

3MT came to Canada in 2011 when Univeristy of British Columbia (UBC) held a university-level competition. The following year several other Canadian universities organized similar events. In 2013 16 Ontario universities (Brock, Carleton, Guelph, Laurentian, McMaster, OCAD, Ottawa, Queen's, Ryerson, UOIT, UoT, Waterloo, Western, Wilfrid Laurier, Windsor, York) participated in the first province-wide event, which took place at Queen's. The first Canadian national competition started in 2014. Read more about 3MT in these University Affairs (March 2013,  May 2013) articles.

YEAR REGION & HOST WINNERS
2015 National Competition
TBD		 TBD
Ontario
Western University
 
Eastern zone
TBD
 
Western zone
TBD
 
2014 National Competition
June 12, 2014		 Info
Winner will be chosen from 11 finalists from regional competitions.
Ontario
McMaster University
April 24, 2014
  • First: Daiva Nielsen - University of Toronto
  • Second: Leslie Nash - Brock University
  • Third & People's Choice: Muhammad Ali Naqvi - Ryerson University
  • Fourth: Joseph Donohue - Western University
  • Fifth: Yasina Somani - University of Windson
  • Participants Choice Award: Cory Scurr - Wilfried Laurier University
Eastern zone
Dalhousie University
April 24, 2014
  • First: Kirk Luther (PhD Student) - Department of Psychology, Memorial University of Newfoundland
  • Second: Sherin Al-Safadi (PhD Student) - Department of Biology, Concordia University
  • Third: Kyle Massia (Master's Student) - Department of History, Saint Mary's University
  • Honourable Mention: Therese Chevalier (PhD Student) - Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University
Western zone
University of Calgary
May 2, 2014
  • First: Erika Dufort-Lefrancois, Thompson Rivers University
  • Second: Stephanie Harvard, University of British Columbia
  • Third & People's Choice: Andrea Edel, University of Manitoba
2013 Ontario - inaugural
Queen's University
April 18, 2013
  • First: Jasdeep Saggar (PhD student) - Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
  • Second: Abraham Heifets (PhD student) - Computer Science, University of Toronto
  • Third: Chau Minh Phan (PhD student) - Vision Science, University of Waterloo
  • People's Choice Award: Michael Taylor (M.Sc. student) - Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University
-  University-level competitions in other provinces.
2012 -  Various university-level competitions. No regional or national competition.
2011 UBC
  • Winner: Andrew Ming-Lum - Faculty of Medicine (Experimental Medicine), UBC

Contents last updated on June 5, 2014.