GradResearch Live! & 3MT Competition

Preparatory Workshop:

• Communicating Your Research, from Friday, October 4, 2024

Video Submission Deadline

• 8:00 a.m. on Monday, October 21, 2024
• See submission details below

GradResearch Live! Final Event

• 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 6, 2024
• Esports Theater at The Cornerstone
• Family and friends are encouraged to attend!

Pre-3MT

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Josephine Otuagomah, Nutritional Science, "Cells Can Lie Too"

Second Place: Fatemeh Hamedi, Biomedical Engineering, "Seeing the Unseen: Optical Imaging for Early Detection of Brain Disorders in Newborns"

Third Place: Jainam Dhruva, Computer Science, "Building a Smarter Home for a Greener Planet"

3MT

First Place: Pegah Safavi, Biomedical Engineering, "What If a Portable Sensor Could Enable Early Alzheimer’s Detection" 

Second Place: Mary Margaret Zrull, Musicology, "Composed in Captivity: Music by French Prisoners of War during WWII"

Third Place: Carleigh Litteral, Experimental Psychology, "Impact of Family History Density on Substance Use Onset and Duration"

People's Choice Award Winner: Deborah Adeyemi, Chemistry, "‘YOU’ are the Air I Breathe!"

• Early-Research or pre-3MT (master’s and doctoral; students in proposal stage or with preliminary findings)
  • 1^st place: $500
  • 2^nd place: $250
  • 3^rd place: $150
  • People’s Choice: $150
• Late-Research or Standard 3MT (master’s and doctoral; students with results/conclusions)
  • 1^st place: $750 (and advancement to regional competition)
  • 2^nd place: $500
  • 3^rd place: $250
  • People’s Choice: $250

Participants are required to submit a video recording for the preliminary round, and we will select the top submissions to compete in-person during our live event.

Below are the official rules of the competition. Please read and follow all rules before submitting your video. Click here for the judging rubric.

• The competition is limited to currently enrolled masters and doctoral students, or postdocs, at the University of Kentucky who have not previously won a campus-wide 3MT competition.
• Finalists must present live and in person at the final event, without the aid of notecards or cheat-sheets
• No additional sound or video is permitted in the presentation.
• No additional props (e.g. costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment, etc.) are permitted.
• Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum; competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualified. (A timer will be displayed at the finals.)
• Presentations are to be spoken-word prose (e.g. no poetry, raps, or songs).
• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through either movement or speech.
• The decision of the judges is final.

7 Steps to Effective Communication (PPT)

Pre-3MT

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Ray Celeste Tanner, Communication, "Beyond the Org Chart: Informal Communication Networks and Organizational Culture"

Second Place: Hannah Blevins, Entomology, "Complexities of Cockroach Control"

Third Place: Devin Dunigan, Public Policy & Administration, "Inefficient Broadband Hinders Academic Performance and Economic Development"

3MT

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Jovita Ogechi Daraezinwa, Chemistry, "The Million-Dollar Question; How Close are We to a Cure?"

Second Place: Great Umenweke, Chemistry, "The Future Energy Is Trash"

Third Place: Mary Wallace, Entomology, "Silencing Beetle Senses: Protecting our Forests Using Gene Silencing"

Postdoctoral Track

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Khine Zin Aung, Public Health, "Alzheimer’s Disease: A Polygenic Risk Score Analysis"

Second Place: Ajoy Aloysius, Biology, "Local Heroes of Tissue Regeneration"

Pre-3MT

First Place: Courtney Martin, Kinesiology and Health Promotion, "Exploring Tobacco, and Empowering Youth Through the Lens"

Second Place: Kasey Vigil, Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology, "Analyzing (Pluri)Sexual Satisfaction"

Third Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Jordan Parker, Veterinary Science, "Antibiotics and Horse Bacteria: The Good, The Bad, and the Poopy"

3MT

First Place: Feitong Lei, Public Health, "What is Unknown About Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)?"

Second Place: Kathryn Mattingly-Flynn, Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, "My Career, My Choice?"

Third Place: Erica Jacquay, Veterinary Science, "Why Did The Horse Cross The Road?"

People's Choice Award Winner: Emily Naser-Hall, English, "Conceive and Control"

Postdoctoral Track

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Abdullah Al Masud, Pharmaceutical Sciences, "Nano-targeting Keeps Hope When Drug Kills More, Than Cure"

Second Place: Alec Tewsley-Booth, Physics, "Why is there stuff instead of no stuff?"

Pre-3MT

First Place: Amanda Slone, Communication, "A Communicable Vaccine for Misinformation"

Second Place:  Rayven Peterson, Educational, School, & Counseling Psychology, "Examining Mistrust: An Analysis of Cultural Mistrust Among Black Americans in Therapy Settings"

Third Place: Anita Silwal, Communication, "Masculinity and Mental Health: Changing Behavior through Health Messages"

People's Choice Award Winner: Kelly Ferguson, Hispanic Studies, "Horror Revealed: Using the Horror Genre as a Modality for Understanding Histories of State Sanctioned Violence"

3MT

First Place: Robert Anderson, Nutrition & Food Systems, "Maximal Strength Training Can Increase Metabolism in Adults Classified as Obese"

Second Place: Sung-Yuan Cheng, Accounting, "Do Stock Investors Incorporate Climate Risk Information into their Investment Decisions?"

Third Place: Priya Karna, Chemistry, "Let's Rub Sunscreen All Over Our Chemistry!"

People's Choice Award Winner: Robert Anderson

Note: Competition moved online due to COVID-19.

Pre-3MT

First Place: Sara Green, Education Sciences/Leadership, "The Students Left Behind: A Push for More Graduate Student Support Services"

Second Place: Carrie Bohmer, Educational & Counseling Psychology, "A Cliterature Review"

Third Place: Christina S. Walker, Communication, "Gatekeeping the Jury: Is Justice Possible Amid Unchecked Prosecutorial Discretion?"

People’s Choice Award Winner: Fahmida Rahman, Civil Engineering, "Effect of Speed on the Crashes of Rural Two-Lane Highways"

3MT

First Place: Jonghee Lee-Caldararo, Geography, "Sleepless in Seoul"

Second Place: Kristen Witt, Education Sciences/STEM, "Kids NEED Daily Science Instruction: A STEM Specialist Can Make That Happen"

Third Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Kanthi Nuti, Chemistry, "Understanding the Therapeutic Design in Treatment of Various Diseases"

Postdoc Track

First Place: Steven McBride, Plant & Soil Science, "Harnessing Gasses to Increase Agricultural Production"

Second Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Alfadhl Alkhaled, Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering, "Non-Destructive Methods of Codling Moth-Infested Apples"

Pre-3MT

First Place: Kameron White McDaniel, Educational Psychology, "Relationship Between Racial Identity Beliefs and Self-Efficacy in Black Girls Within the Education Context"

Second Place: Zakary Clements, Counseling Psychology, "Positive Transgender Identity"

3MT

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Natalie Malone, Educational, School, & Counseling Psychology, "Can a Meditation Help Heal Racial Trauma?"

Second Place: Carli Loss, Orthodontics, "Suzie's Smile"

Third Place: Julia Schulz, Pharmaceutical Sciences, "The Terminator in the Brain"

Postdoc

First Place: Sathya Velmurugan, Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, "Diabetes, Heart, and a Tale of Two Ions"

Second Place: Oliver Voecking, Biology, "Eye Am Legend"

Graduate Research Showcase

First Place: Marcus T. Epps, Educational, School, & Counseling Psychology, "Unlikely Motivators in Education: Equipping Black Males to Succeed in Formal Education"

Second Place: Chi Peng, Clinical & Translational Science, "Are Anti-HIV Drugs Affecting Platelet Function?"

3MT

First Place: Anna Bedsole, English, "Gothic Heroines and #MeToo"

Second Place: Daniel Chavez, Business Administration, "Hypothetical Bias: Do Real Questions Give Real Answers?"

Third Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Melissa Cantor, Animal & Food Sciences, "The Sick Calf Detector"

Postdoc Research Showcase

First Place: Jong Hyun Kim, Chemistry, "Looking for Potent Anticancer Drug"

Second Place: Kathryn Everson, Biology, "Systematics and Species Discovery in Madagascar's Tenrecs"

First Place: Shayan Mohammadmoradi, Nutritional Sciences, "Small in Size but Big in Function: How a Molecule Called TSR4 may Affect Abdominal Aortic Aneurism"

Second Place: Kai Zhang, Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, "Designing a Drug for Alcoholic Brain Disease"

Third Place: Soroosh Torabi, Mechanical Engineering, "3D Micro-Scale Chip: A Game Changing Strategy to Fight Cancer"

People's Choice Award Winner:

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Carleigh Fedorka, Veterinary Science, "The Dirty Broodmare... Cleaned Up"

Second Place: Andrew Welleford, Anatomy & Neurobiology, "Nerve Support Cells: The Key to Stopping Parkinson's Disease?"

Third Place: Jessica Richard, Agricultural Economics, "Dairy Margin Protection Program"

First Place: Sydney Crawley, Entomology, "Think Like a Bed Bug: Elucidating Behavior to Enhance Control"

Second Place: Katie McKenna, Microbiology, "Role of Spleen in B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL)"

Third Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Shayan Mohammadmoradi, Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, "Your Gut Bacteria Can Make You Obese"

Spring 2014

First Place & People's Choice Winner: Olufunmilola Akinola, Nutritional Sciences

Second Place (TIE): Gary Gregg, Plant & Soil Sciences AND Kayla Johnson, Educational Policy Studies & Evaluation

Fall 2014

Master's Students

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Shayan Mohammadmoradi, Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, "Cholesterol Lowering Effects of Probiotics"

Second Place: Gary Gregg, Plant & Soil Sciences

Third Place: Laura Higley, Classics

Doctoral Students

First Place & People's Choice Award Winner: Jianing Li, Pharmacology & Nutritional Sciences, "Peanut Allergy, Not Just Peanuts"

Second Place: Carolyn Crowdus Meyer, Anatomy & Neurobiology

Third Place: Victoria Pook, Entomology, "Drilling for Biofuel: Uncovering the Potential of Wasp Venom for the Production of Renewable Energy"

Fall 2013

First Place: Danielle Lyons, Physiology

Second Place: Stephanie Richman, Psychology

Third Place: Oreoluwa Adedoyin, Pharmaceutical Sciences

People's Choice Award: Jennifer Tullmann, Musicology

Spring 2013 

Three finalists, unranked, were selected to present at a Graduate Student Congress dinner with President Eli Capilouto:

Alejandra Catalina Velez-Ortega, Physiology 

Heather Yonutas, Anatomy and Neurobiology 

Ann Niren, Music Performance