Spending years researching nanotechnology in medicine is challenging — but explaining this research to someone who’s only heard the word in science fiction is even tougher.   “With the Three Minute Thesis Competition, you have to be creative in the way you explain your work so that even your grandma could understand it,” said Nusaiba Baker, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering. “She may not understand DNA or the nuances of nanotechnology, so this has been a challenge to me to have to describe what I’m doing in a fun way.” Since 2015, Georgia Tech’s version of the international 3MT competition has helped graduate students hone their communication skills by challenging them to share their research in three minutes in a way anyone could understand. On Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 6 p.m., Baker and other Ph.D. and master’s students will compete in the final round of the 2018 competition. The event is open to all and will be held in the Global Learning Center (GLC) Auditorium, and a reception and awards presentation will follow. The finalists were selected over the course of three preliminary rounds held in October. Master’s student finalists are competing for research travel grants ranging from $500 to $1,000, while Ph.D. finalists are competing for grants ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. There will also be a People’s Choice winner (selected by the audience) who will receive $500. The Ph.D. finalists for the 2018 3MT include the following students:

• Nusaiba Baker, Biomedical Engineering Oral Delivery of DNA-enzyme Nanoparticles Ameliorates Inflammation in a Murine Model of Ulcerative Colitis
• Anirban Chatterjee, Civil and Environmental Engineering Fusion of Emerging Technologies for Robust, Frequent and Cost-Effective Road Infrastructure Condition Assessment
• Aaron Enten, Bioengineering/Electrical and Computer Engineering Pulse Modulated Periodic Backflush
• Deborah Ferguson, Physics Testing General Relativity With Gravitational Waves
• Sauraubh Gupta, Mechanical Engineering Nano-mechanical Testing: There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom
• Emily Hokett, Psychology General Sleep Patterns Predict Associative Memory Retrieval in Older Adults
• Sourabh Jha, Mechanical Engineering Enhancement of Cooling in Data Centers Through Flags
• Yaoyao Jia, Electrical and Computer Engineering Distributed Biomedical Implants As Future of Medicine
• Neha Kondekar, Materials Science and Engineering Engineering MoS2 Transistors – A New Approach to Faster Phones
• Xiangyun Lei, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Fingerprinting and Visualizing Electronic Environment
• Connie Liu, Aerospace Engineering Replacing Metal Antennas with Plasma
• Yi Liu, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Novel Supply Chain and Process Modeling for Cell Therapy Manufacturing and Distribution
• Cong Luo, Civil and Environmental Engineering Removing Drugs in Human Urine Using Ferrate (Fe(VI))
• Anish Mukherjee, Bioengineering/Electrical and Computer Engineering Lymphatic Vessel Mechanics: A Clue towards Treating Lymphedema
• Francisco Quintero, Materials Science and Engineering Solid Lithium Batteries and How to Deal With a Diva
• Megan Tomko, Mechanical Engineering Academic Makerspaces: Sites of Learning for Women Students
• Alexandra Tsoras, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Little Bugs, Big Issues: Making Smarter Vaccines for Complex Diseases
• Shan Xiong, Mechanical Engineering A Solid Future for Safe, Powerful Batteries
• Yusuf Yaras, Electrical and Computer Engineering Acousto-optic Sensor for Interventional MRI Procedures

The master’s student finalists include the following students:

• Keshav Bimbraw, Music Imparting Expressivity and Dynamics to Percussive Musical Robot Shimon
• Eugene Mangortey, Aerospace Engineering Predicting the Duration and Coincidence of Ground Delay Programs and Ground Stops
• Tejas Rode, Music Robotic Improvisation of Indian Classical Music on Marimba

For more information about the finals and the competition, visit grad.gatech.edu/3mt.