The 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) concept has grown in stature since its launch at the University of Queensland in 2008. It has since been adopted in 18 countries, including Malaysia.

UTM hosted the inagural Malaysia 3MT in 2014. This year, the competition is again hosted by UTM, but this time round it is hosted jointly with Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP).

The 2015 Malaysia 3MT Competition saw the participation of 69 PhD students from 16 Malaysia public universities.

3MT Competition is an academic competition that challenges doctoral research students to explain their research within three minutes to a general audience. The competition celebrates the discoveries made by doctoral research students and encourages skills development in communicating the importance of research to the broader community. It encourages students to consolidate their ideas and crystallise their research discoveries to engage a non-specialist audience.

The event is also a useful exercise for PhD students to reflect on why they are doing research in the first place and the impact they hope the research will have. This can renew their energy and interest in the research they are conducting. Additionally, this competition offers the opportunity for young researchers to obtain invaluable feedback and to form impactful networking.

This year’s 3MT received strong support from UTM and UMP’s School of Graduate Studies, Malaysian Deans of Graduate Studies Council, and particularly the Malaysia Ministry of Education who was the competition’s main sponsor.

A group of five jury panellists were invited to evaluate the participants’ presentation. They were Prof Dr Iekshan Othman, Head of the Department of Biomedical Science from Monash University Malaysia, Dr Wan Abdul Rahman Jauhari Wan Harun from SIRIM Berhad, Encik Ahmad Fedtri Yahya from Media Prima Bhd, Encik Nik Izuddin Nik Mohd Yusof from Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) Sdn Bhd and Dr Guan Eng Chan from Higher Learning Sector, Division of Research Planning and Coordinating at Ministry of Education Malaysia.
The participants were divided into three categories:  (1) Engineering, (2) Science and Technology, and (3) Social Science. There were 22 participants in the Engineering Category, 25 in the Science and Technology Category, and 22 in the Social Science Category.

The first, second and third place winners for each category was awarded  RM3000,  RM2000, and RM1000, respectively.  For this year, a new category was introduced, namely,  the ‘Best of the Best’ category, involving the best among the 9 winners of the contest. The winner of the ‘Best of the best’ was awarded to JAYSUMAN PUSPPANATHAN (UTM) from the Engineering category.

Details of the winners for the 2015 Malaysia 3MT competitions are as follows:
Engineering Category:
1. First Place – Jaysuman Pusppanathan (UTM)
2. Second Place – Noor Aina Mohd Nazri (UTM)
3. Third Place – Roshahliza M. Ramli (USM)

Science & Technology Category:
1. First Place – Nor Ain Husein (UTM)
2. Second Place – Norsyuhadah Alias (UPM)
3. Third Place – Ili Syazwana Abdullah (UM)

Social Science Category:

1. First Place – Safiah Omar (UiTM)
2. Second Place – Nor Haniza Mohamed (UTM)
3. Third Place – Azadeh Shafaei Darastani (USM)