Semi-final competitors: from left to right, James Zhang, Jyotirmoy Mondal, Trey Lewis, Shantanu Shukla, Alan Robertson, Jessica Klabnik, Hannah Widdifield.

The Haslam College of Business, the College of Architecture and Design, and the College of Communication and Information were the organizers of the last session of the 2020 UT 3MT Semi-Final Competition on Friday, February 28. In keeping with all of the other sessions, each graduate student participant, following the rules of the Three Minute Thesis organization, was given three minutes (no more) and a single slide to talk about their research to a panel of judges, who probably have no experience with their field of study. The judges were looking for presentations that were clear, compelling, and engaging. And the participants did UT proud, indeed.

The topics for this session were from a wide variety of fields, drawing from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Communication and Information, the Haslam College of Business, and the Herbert College of Agriculture. Those moving forward are Jessica Klabnik (Animal Science), Alan Robertson (Agricultural and Research Economics), and Hannah Widdifield (English). These three graduate students will compete on April 1 in the 2020 3MT Final Competition starting at 1:30 during Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week.

All of the competitors were outstanding and demonstrated that, when it comes to research, UT graduate students are doing work that truly matters. Thank you to all of the participants, our judges, and our associate deans, who organized this session. The Graduate School looks forward to seeing everyone at the finals in April!