Could you present an 80,000 word thesis in three minutes? That is the challenge for Charles Sturt University (CSU) doctoral students at the Three Minute Thesis (3MT^®) Competition held this month.

Students have to describe their research within three minutes to a general audience. The competition celebrates the discoveries made by CSU’s research students and develops their skills in communicating the importance and value of their research to the broader community.

Members of the local community are warmly invited to attend the event, which is being held in town at the Wagga Wagga Council Chambers.

Established by The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2008, 3MT^® is now held in at least 600 universities across more than 65 countries worldwide.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Development & Industry), Professor Mary Kelly said “The broad concept of the competition is simple, the presenter has one PowerPoint slide and three minutes speaking on stage”.

“It is becoming more and more important for doctoral candidates and researchers to be able to explain their research to wider audiences”.  Professor Kelly added.

“They need to be able to distil their complex research into language that can be understood by everybody and identify how this research is novel and can deliver benefits to the broader community.”

The Final will also include a special presentation from Mr Dan Aubin of Daring Humans – ‘A Fine Balance; Performing Research’. Mr Aubin is a professional communicator, mover, educator and artist, exploring what it means to be a ‘moving academic’.

The 3MT^® Final will start at 4 pm on June 27 at the Wagga Wagga Council Chambers.

The winner of the Three Minute Thesis at the Charles Sturt University Final will go on to represent the University at the 2018 Asia-Pacific 3MT Final in September in Brisbane.