一本道无码

Nine doctoral students explained their complex research and its importance in under three minutes during the championship round of 一本道无码's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, held Thursday, March 14 in Tepper School of Business鈥檚 Simmons Auditorium A.

First place was awarded to Benjamin Glaser from . Second place was awarded to Sampada Acharya, who is studying . Acharya also received both the People鈥檚 Choice Award 鈥� selected by the audience in the theater 鈥� and the Alumni Choice Award, chosen by online votes from alumni watching the livestream. Third place went to Nicole C. Auvil, who is studying chemistry(opens in new window) in the Mellon College of Science.

The event, which is in its ninth year at Carnegie Mellon, started at the University of Queensland in 2008 and has been adopted by over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide. Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. Dean of the University Libraries , who brought the competition to 一本道无码, served as host of Thursday鈥檚 finals.

Glaser, a doctoral student in the , was excited to tackle the challenge that 3MT presents. He first tried to summarize his research informally for a group of friends after watching last year鈥檚 competition 鈥� and found that it was even more challenging than he expected.

鈥淚 thought it was a very interesting problem, to distill what takes us years just to understand, but then also conveying the importance and magnitude and methods to a general audience in such a short time,鈥� he remembered. 鈥淭his year when the registration came around I worked very hard to be able to make that connection successfully.鈥�

In his research, Glaser is exploring an advanced material discovery model to create new aluminum alloys with high temperature strength and stability, and low cost and emissions.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a difficult problem that we need to be able to approach holistically, but I want people to understand that it is feasible,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n my presentation, I showed something actionable, not just simulations. I鈥檝e already begun to get exciting results.鈥�

Acharya, also from the College of Engineering, said she made such an impact on both in-person and livestream audiences due to the universality of her topic. Her research focuses on creating a device that can collect pathogens from surfaces, with the goal of making infectious places like hospitals less dangerous to visit.

鈥淧eople don鈥檛 want to go to hospitals and then feel sicker 鈥� you go there in order to feel better and make others feel better as well,鈥� she explained. 鈥淪o my research, which addresses this huge gap that no one has really talked about in hundreds of years, spoke to everyone 鈥� especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which really left its mark on people.鈥�

To be truly successful, Acharya鈥檚 research requires collaboration from a variety of fields, and that鈥檚 why sharing her work with a campus-wide audience like the one assembled for 3MT was so important to her.

鈥淭his is an issue that everyone needs to work together to address 鈥� from computer scientists to mechanical engineers to roboticists to people working with artificial intelligence and beyond 鈥� and I hope that鈥檚 a takeaway from my presentation,鈥� Acharya said. 鈥淭his interdisciplinary audience is the thing that I really love about 一本道无码. I can inspire them to think about how they can bring their work and their knowledge to try and address this gap.鈥�

Auvil credits her successful presentation in part to her artistic slide design.

鈥淚 always try to put a lot of effort into the art side of science communication, which I feel is not given enough attention by a lot of scientists,鈥� she explained. 鈥淕raphics and art can draw in people who wouldn鈥檛 normally be interested in science, and also help them understand it in a way that words just can鈥檛. Visuals are a universal language; they can convey things that you鈥檒l never be able to convey with words.鈥�

She works with a chemical analysis instrument known as a mass spectrometer, which is essential for everything from testing environmental samples to crime scenes to historic artifacts 鈥� but it鈥檚 time intensive and expensive, and sometimes even damages samples. Her research has already yielded a new scientific device that attaches to a mass spectrometer to improve this process, which she named the 鈥淪uper Sniffer鈥� due to the way it detects chemicals emanating from samples, similar to the way a nose can detect chemicals in the air.

鈥淚 love the point I鈥檓 at now, where we can work on fun applications,鈥� Auvil said. 鈥淓very time I talk to people about my work they suggest new ideas 鈥� even here at 3MT, today 鈥� and that鈥檚 why I love opportunities like this. Everyone has their own background that can inform what sort of applications would be important in their life, and not all of those are things that me or my advisor would think about on our own.鈥�