3M 2017 graduate students, © UWinnipeg
The University of Winnipeg’s Faculty of Graduate Studies hosted the Fourth Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT) with eight courageous students. Each student had only three minutes to explain their complex thesis ideas with one static slide using simple language yesterday in Eckhardt Gramatté Hall.
“To stand up before an audience of peers and professors and articulate your thesis in a coherent and engaging three minutes takes a lot of verve, nerve, and talent,” shared Dr. Neil Besner, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Provost and Vice-President, Academic.
People’s Choice winners, Aliraza Alidina, Ana Breit with Dr. Mavis Reimer (centre)
The big winner was Aliraza Alidina, a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar, (Master’s in Development Practice in Indigenous Development), who presented Fostering a safe space for dialogue between Indigenous and newcomer communities. Alidina also won the people’s choice awards alongside Ana Breit (Bioscience, Technology and Public Policy), who presented on The Pathogen transmission and torpor expression in little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus).
“Aliraza’s work on fostering a safe space for dialogue between Indigenous and newcomer communities in Winnipeg was recognized by our judges as important applied research,” said Dr. Mavis Reimer, Dean, Graduate Studies. “Competing at the Western Regional competition will offer him the opportunity to disseminate his model for such dialogue to a broader community.”
All eight graduate student participants made it within the three-minute competitive time limit with research topics that ranged from bats and mosquitoes (Bioscience, Technology and Public Policy), to visual searches (Computer Science) and combating crime (Applied Computer Science & Society), to reconciliation (Master’s in Development Practice in Indigenous Development).
The judges included Christina Weise, CEO, Research Manitoba; Shaneen Robinson, Reporter, Winnipeg Bureau, APTN; and James Currie, Deputy Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic.
Alidina will now represent UWinnipeg at the Western Regional Competition on April 28, 2107 at the University of Saskatchewan. Alidina supporters have the opportunity to vote for him for the People’s Choice Award at the Western Regional Competition on April 28, 2:00 pm (Winnipeg time/CDT) at usask.ca.
If he takes a win at USaskatchewan, he will then compete at the National Competition hosted by the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies. More info here.
Past UWinnipeg 3MT competition videos can be viewed here.
