Graduate Students Shine in 2021 ME3MT Competition
This year's ME Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition took place on October 6 and showcased the impactful, innovative research being done by our graduate students. Over 125 attendees watched the event, which was held both virtually and in person at Northrop's Best Buy Theater.
The 3MT Competition gives graduate students three minutes to describe their thesis in an engaging and easy-to-understand format. The purpose of the competition is to celebrate the innovative research conducted by our graduate students and to cultivate their academic, presentation, and research communications skills while highlighting the diversity of research in ME today, with topics ranging from energy and the environment to human health. ME's graduate students engage in pioneering, interdisciplinary research and will become the next leaders in mechanical engineering in both academia and industry.
The first and second place winners were chosen by our judges, based on combined scores in four categories: comprehension, content, engagement, and communication. The People’s Choice award was determined by a poll sent to all attendees. Winners receive prize money as well as the opportunity to represent ME at the CSE 3MT competition on October 21. The first place winner at CSE's competition will go on to compete at the University-wide event on November 12.
FIRST PLACE: Amey Joshi, “Robots to Accelerate Biological Research”
SECOND PLACE: Yaling Liu, “‘Transparent Solar Panel’: Luminescent Solar Concentrators”
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: Iaroslav Makhnenko, “Don’t Let Pesticides Fly Away”
2021 Competitors
Merin AP — “How to Mitigate Volcanic Disasters!”
Andrew Alegria — “Reimagining Microinjection”
Weiqi Chen — “Using Aerosols to Create Nano-scaled Membranes to Boost Particulate Filter Performance”
Amey Joshi — “Robots to Accelerate Biological Research”
Joe Kangas — “Preserving Life by Transformation to Glass”
Yaling Liu — "’Transparent Solar Panel’: Luminescent Solar Concentrators”
Yilin Liu — "’Pregnancy’ Test for COVID-19”
Iaroslav Makhnenko— “Don’t Let Pesticides Fly Away”
Ali Nouriani — “Wearable Analysis of Postural Instability in Parkinson’s Disease”
Jeremy Simmons — “Fresh Water from Waves”
Ben Szot — “Cost Effective Dialysis for Developing Countries”
Zhenming Xie — “Vehicle Tracking with Low-Cost Sensors”
Ning Ye — “Understanding How Orthodontic Aligners Work”