The winner of this year’s Three Minute Thesis competition at the University of Windsor is examining how supercomputers can be used to combat superbugs.

Chemistry and biochemistry master’s student Travis DeWolfe took home the $1,000 top prize and will represent the University at the provincial final, April 12 at the University of Waterloo.

“I’m just kind of flabbergasted, really,” DeWolfe said following the competition. “All of the competitors here were fantastic and so to watch them all and hear my name announced was surreal.”

The competition saw 12 graduate students present their thesis, major research paper or dissertation topic in under three minutes and with the use of a single presentation slide at the Ambassador Auditorium on Tuesday.

Patti Weir, dean of graduate studies, said the competition gets stronger every year and has grown to include more disciplines.

“We are getting some students from the humanities and arts and social sciences which have really opened our scope and made the competition more interesting,” Dr. Weir said.

Weir said DeWolfe won this year because of the clarity of his presentation and how he made the complex subject of studying enzymes relatable to the audience.

The second place prize of $500 went to English language and literature master’s student Christopher Cameron and the third prize of $250 went to human kinetics master’s student Mary Ann Zokvic.

The Three Minute Thesis competition started at the University of Queensland in 2008 and is now recognized in 53 countries around the world.

Winners in the provincial competition in Waterloo will advance to the national round in June.

Humidity detectors, home security alarms, game show clickers and a DJ Box are a few of the student projects that will be on display at UWindsor’s semi-annual electronics open house, Thursday in the atrium of the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

More than 100 electrical engineering students from professor Mitra Mirhassani’s second-year electronics class will demonstrate these technologies and more between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on March 30.

As part of a course requirement, students were tasked with designing a product using an analog circuit. During the open house, they will compete for best overall project. A panel of judges will evaluate each project based on design, technical difficulty, presentation and a question-and-answer session.

Dr. Mirhassani said the project allows students to explore, design, construct and debug circuits. The event is open to all students, staff and faculty and the public.

Seeing the projects of fellow students is an inspiration, says Erin Tanner. She was one of hundreds of attendees checking out posters and presentations during Kinesiology Research Day, Tuesday in the Human Kinetics Building.

“I’m interested in getting involved in some research myself,” said the second-year sport management student. “Today gave me a platform to start networking and get more of a sense of the type of work being done in my field.”

That response is exactly what professor Cheri McGowan likes to hear. The department’s research co-ordinator, she was lead organizer of the event.

“We have a culture of celebrating our students and really want to showcase their successes,” she said. “There are some really talented students here and it gives them an opportunity to tell their stories.”

Third-year movement science major Matt Varga said preparing his poster developed his skill in communicating complex ideas. His project compared the types of images female athletes share on their social media channels to those published in the Body Issue of ESPN Magazine, which features nude photographs of women and men.

“On their personal Instagram feeds, they prefer to show themselves in athletic action, strong and powerful,” Varga said. “But ESPN shows more sexualized pictures and what we term ‘getting pretty’ shots.”

In fact, he found ESPN was five times more likely to pick images in the getting pretty category, and half as likely to feature these athletes in action.

Varga’s sad conclusion? “Sex sells, or at least ESPN believes it does.”

Donald Trump’s unconventional campaign style is perfectly suited to the current political climate in the United States, says Vincent Raynauld.

Professor of communications at Boston’s Emerson College and a research associate in the Groupe de recherche en communication politique (Political Communication Research Group) at Université Laval, he will share his insights into the president’s campaign in a free public presentation Wednesday, April 5, on the UWindsor campus.

Dr. Raynauld’s lecture, entitled “Catching (Electoral) Lightning in a Bottle,” will explore the factors behind Trump’s victory. It will run noon to 1 p.m. in room 255, Dillon Hall. Attendees will receive a light lunch and must RSVP by March 31 to Patti Brimner, graduate secretary in the Department of Political Science, at pbrimner@uwindsor.ca.

An information session Monday, April 3, will discuss the Walls to Bridges program, promoting collaborative learning between students at UWindsor and at South West Detention Centre.

Students who have been incarcerated study university-level courses with peers from outside the correctional system. All participants learn class content together through innovative, experiential and dialogical processes.

The session offers a chance to meet the instructor and facilitators and will run 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in room 359, Dillon Hall. Learn more on the Facebook event page.

Several student organizations will set up booths alongside vendors at the campus farmers’ market Thursday, March 30, in the CAW Student Centre Commons.

Representatives of Fair Trade Campus - Windsor, Student Community Kitchen, and Enactus Windsor will be on hand to discuss their activities and projects from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The market will offer foods and handmade crafts for purchase. Find more information on the Facebook event page.

The first phase of the University of Windsor’s downtown campus, the former Windsor Star building at the intersection of Pitt and Ferry streets, is currently featured on the website of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute.

The Pitt-Ferry Building — home of the School of Social Work and the Centre for Executive and Professional Education — was also featured in a paper recently released by the institute’s Community Design Working Group, titled “Healthy Communities and Planning for the Public Realm: A Call to Action.”

The institute will focus on healthy communities, along with the paper, during a webinar on Wednesday, April 5.