YSU holds Three Minute Thesis competition

Youngstown Statue University held its Three Minute Thesis competition, with preliminary rounds Nov. 6 and final rounds Nov. 21. The event was hosted at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor.

The 3MT is a competition for students to present a thesis or dissertation in three minutes and explain their topic concisely to a non-specialist audience.

The finalists for the event were:

• Taslima Akter in the Chemical Engineering program presented the topic “Mechanical properties of 3D printed high performance ceramics and their bi-materials parts via vat polymerization.”
• Diveshwar Shah in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program presented the topic “Nutrient and Flow Calibration on Tappan Lake using SWAT and WET.”
• James Rook in the Educational Leadership program presented on the topic “Supporting School Outcomes with Effective Communication.”
• Aayush Jha in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program presented on the topic “Impact of Climate Change on Fish Habitat Analysis Using Coupled HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS Model in Grand River of Northeastern Ohio.”
• Katie Chludzinski in the Mechanical Engineering program presented on the topic “Performance Optimization of a Continuously Variable Transmission.”
• Gelareh Naghibi Saleh in the Computing and Information Systems program presented on the topic “Structured Pruning Graph Neural Networks Models for Inference Acceleration.”
• Meghan Ball in the Health Sciences program presented on “Use of Neurodevelopmental Care and Impact on NICU Nurse Burnout.”
• Nischal Pokhrel in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program, who presented on the topic “Investigation of Prediction Models for Pumping Beneath Concrete Pavements.”

Chludzinski, Naghibi Saleh and Akter won first, second and third place, respectively.

The first 3MT was held at The University of Queensland in 2008 with 160 RHD students competing. Enthusiasm for the 3MT concept grew and its widespread implementation by universities has led to the development of an international competition.