Today I went to the finals of 3 Minute Thesis Competition. Presenting one's 3 or more years' PhD in only 3 minutes using one slide without any animation or props is a really difficult job. I was really eager to see the contestants who have gone through this journey. I was interested to learn how they squeezed their thesis in three minutes, what are the judges' responses to that and how the audience is reacting.
Last year I was a runner up in the school heat (ECA heat). I started the journey which I could not finish but later on I overcame my lacking in the Falling Walls Lab Edinburgh. The only difference between three minute thesis competition and falling walls lab is you can use more than one slide in falling walls lab, you can also use some props. But both the competitions are very strict to the 3 minutes boundary and its safer to prepare your presentation for less than 3 minutes. You can present whatever you are doing in your PhD in the three minutes thesis but falling walls lab target a larger audience in some way not bound to PhD students. Any person doing a research that has an impact on people and society can present in Falling Walls.
Whatever be the criteria presenting your research to a audience who are not expert in your field is quite a difficult job. But that's the job one has to perform. This job makes you think about your research in a different way to be more specific in a very realistic way. You need to be very clear about your contribution to the world knowledge and be able to establish it in those three minutes. You may be a part of a research team but you have to be very specific what is your contribution as an individual researcher.
In addition, You also need to think about why your contribution is significant. The research must be put in a context and you have to relate it with the audience. Engaging your audience is not that easy but that makes you a better presenter. Energy, enthusiasm, use of humour all are the qualities that an audience search for in a presenter.
While focusing mainly on the speech many often forget about that 'one' slide and do not pay much attention to it. When you are given the opportunity to use a slide you should make most out of it. You need to relate your speech to the slide making it informative and not too stuffed at the same time.
Do consider of participating in such a competition which can change the way you are looking at your PhD at this moment. I was the winner of Falling Walls Lab Edinburgh which gave me the scope to present my research in Falling Walls Lab Finals in Berlin. 100 presenters participated in that finals. Yes, you read it right, 100 presenters presenting 3 minutes each on one day. It was a long day but it was a great opportunity to learn about what is going on in different fields of research around the globe.
I am considering participating in 3 Minute Thesis Competition in 2016.
Meet you there!
Last year I was a runner up in the school heat (ECA heat). I started the journey which I could not finish but later on I overcame my lacking in the Falling Walls Lab Edinburgh. The only difference between three minute thesis competition and falling walls lab is you can use more than one slide in falling walls lab, you can also use some props. But both the competitions are very strict to the 3 minutes boundary and its safer to prepare your presentation for less than 3 minutes. You can present whatever you are doing in your PhD in the three minutes thesis but falling walls lab target a larger audience in some way not bound to PhD students. Any person doing a research that has an impact on people and society can present in Falling Walls.
Whatever be the criteria presenting your research to a audience who are not expert in your field is quite a difficult job. But that's the job one has to perform. This job makes you think about your research in a different way to be more specific in a very realistic way. You need to be very clear about your contribution to the world knowledge and be able to establish it in those three minutes. You may be a part of a research team but you have to be very specific what is your contribution as an individual researcher.
In addition, You also need to think about why your contribution is significant. The research must be put in a context and you have to relate it with the audience. Engaging your audience is not that easy but that makes you a better presenter. Energy, enthusiasm, use of humour all are the qualities that an audience search for in a presenter.
While focusing mainly on the speech many often forget about that 'one' slide and do not pay much attention to it. When you are given the opportunity to use a slide you should make most out of it. You need to relate your speech to the slide making it informative and not too stuffed at the same time.
Do consider of participating in such a competition which can change the way you are looking at your PhD at this moment. I was the winner of Falling Walls Lab Edinburgh which gave me the scope to present my research in Falling Walls Lab Finals in Berlin. 100 presenters participated in that finals. Yes, you read it right, 100 presenters presenting 3 minutes each on one day. It was a long day but it was a great opportunity to learn about what is going on in different fields of research around the globe.
I am considering participating in 3 Minute Thesis Competition in 2016.
Meet you there!
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