Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT)

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition is an academic competition that challenges PhD students to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience using only a single static slide. 3MT celebrates the discoveries made by PhD students and encourages their skill in communicating the importance of research to the broader community. The competition takes place annually at numerous universities around the world and was originally founded by the University of Queensland in Australia. WPI hosted its inaugural 3MT competition in 2018, and runs the competition annually each Spring.

PhD students that have completed their qualifying exam or equivalent milestone in their program are eligible to participate.   A workshop is run for for those competing each year, and the date and time and is provided to competitors.

Past Winners:

2025:

• Winner: Julia Nicolescu, “Stepping in the Correct Direction: Foot Muscle Strength for Injury Prevention”

2020:

• Runner up: Megan Mancuso, “Measuring Load-Driven Bone Adaptation in the Forearm of Healthy Women”
• People’s Choice: Zachary Goldblatt, “Mechanical Regulation of Cell Survival”