The UWindsor Three Minute Thesis contest is set for Tuesday, April 1.

The competition challenges graduate students to offer a presentation on their dissertation, thesis, or major research paper to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. At stake are cash prizes of $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, and $250 for third.

The event will get underway at 1:30 p.m. in the Alumni Auditorium, CAW Student Centre.

The presentations cover a wide range of topics from varying disciplines.

Samira Narimannejad, civil and environmental engineering, “The Fight Against Cannabinoids in Our Water Supply”

Kalie Chapman, English and creative writing, “Stem: A poetic exploration of mental illness”

Pavel Shelyganov, chemistry and biochemistry, “Molecular Muscles in Action: Flexing Crystals for Nanotechnology”

Abo-Bakr Emara, physics, “Unlocking the Universe’s Secrets: Tackling Radon in Rare Decay Searches”

Faith Ezekwe, education, “The Unseen Burden, Breaking the Silence:
Financial Stress on Black International Students in Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions”

Mohamad Alkassab, biomedical sciences, “The Never-Ending War: Natural Killer Cells Versus Cytomegalovirus”

Polina Sukhova, physics, “How we shined a light, counted some photons, and tweaked the math until the numbers looked right”

Jaycee Rowe, education, “A Cultural and Global Perspective on Academic Integrity Policies and Misconduct Procedures, and their Impact on International Student Success”

Dora Strelkova, mechanical, automotive, and materials engineering, “You wouldn’t want a pie filled with holes, so why should we accept 3D printed parts with them?”

Reem Al-Saidi, computer science, “Privacy Preservation for Synthetic Data Generation Using Large Language Model (LLM): A case study of Genomic Data”

Piumi Kulatunga, chemistry and biochemistry, “Detect, Attack and Degrade: New Era in Brain Cancer Treatment”

Entrants will be evaluated on three criteria:

• Communication — did the presenter use non-verbal cues effectively and language that was understandable to a general audience?
• Comprehension — did the presentation describe the nature and impact of the research, including conclusions and outcomes?
• Engagement — did the talk capture and maintain audience attention?

The local champion will receive an all-expenses paid trip to represent the University of Windsor in the provincial finals at the University of Toronto on May 14.