Attend a conference to share research with colleagues in her field — that’s what Smruthi Karthikeyan did with the $1,500 research travel grant that she won during last year’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

“The prize money provided me with an opportunity to attend a very important conference in my field and deliver a talk on my research, which is something that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it,” said Karthikeyan, a Ph.D. candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering who took home second place for her presentation, Microbes, Oil Spills and Beyond: Using Microbes to Predict the Impact of Oil Spills. “Also, the competition was a great way to showcase my research to a broader audience and hone my skills when it comes to sharing it with people beyond my field.”

Since 2015, the Georgia Tech version of this international competition that started at The University of Queensland, Australia, has provided graduate students with an opportunity to hone professional skills and win prize money to help further their research efforts. The competition challenges students to explain their research in three minutes in a way that anyone can understand.

Registration for the 2021 competition — which will be entirely virtual — is currently open until Jan. 22. Any Tech Ph.D. or master’s students engaged in dissertation or thesis research are eligible to compete. Plus, any student who registers and submits a video entry will be entered into one of six drawings for a $50 Amazon gift card (based on the student’s college).  

Submissions should be in pre-recorded video format and no longer than three minutes. Check out the competition rules for video guidelines and judging criteria. Also, training modules will be released to registered students on Jan. 4 via Canvas to assist with video creation.

The final event will be held in early April, and winners in both the master’s and Ph.D. categories will receive research travel grants of up to $2,000. An audience-selected People’s Choice Award will also be awarded.

Interested in learning more about the competition? Be sure to attend the 3MT Workshop on Jan. 8 at 1 p.m. (The event can be found here: grad.gatech.edu/3mt/schedule.) To register for the 2021 3MT competition, visit grad.gatech.edu/3MT.