Prepared by: Muhammad Ramziuddin Zakaria (Director of 3MT)

On 19^th May 2021 (Wednesday), Post-Graduate Student Society (PGSS), in collaboration with the School of Graduate Studies (SPS) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) had successfully carried out the premier of Research Carnival Week 2021 with the first top-rated program called 3 Minutes Thesis (3MT) Virtual Competition.

This brand-new looks competition was opened for all UTM Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students under three different categories: Engineering (EE), Science and Technology (S&T), and Social Science (SS). All registered competitors were required to present compelling orations for their theses’ topic in a layman language appropriate to non-specialist audiences within and not more than 3 minutes via Youtube submission link.

The first stage of the competition involved a reviewing process by three appointed juries for each aforementioned categories from 16^th until 18^th May 2021.

For the Engineering category, the session was led by Dr. Nor Hasrul Akhmal Ngadiman (School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering), Dr. Syed Muhammad Rafy Syed Jaafar (Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying) and Ts. Dr. Azlin Abd. Jamil (Assistant Registrar, UTM Innovation and Commercialization Centre) while for Science and Technology category, the session was led by Dr. Nor Ain Husein (Faculty of Science), Dr. Jaysuman Pusppanathan (School of Biomedical Engineering & Health Sciences, Faculty of Engineering) and Dr. Zulfikar Ahmad (Director of UTM Counselling Centre). On the other hand, for Social Science and Humanities category, the session was led by Dr. Kew Si Na (Language Academy, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities), Dr. Nurul Farhana Jumaat (School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities) and Dr. Mohd Saiful Azimi Mahmud (School of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering).

The second stage of this competition required all competitors to attend an online Question and Answer (Q&A) session based on the schedules prepared for them. During this 3MT Virtual Competition Event Day, competitors were given mark based on the judging criteria outlined. All juries for respective category played important roles during the deliberation session to select the top 3 winners by taking into accounts all considerations during this session.

In the nutshell, the overall winners for all three categories were as follows:

Engineering

1. Radhika Gautam Gunaji (School of Chemical & Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)
2. Muhammad Imran Ismail (School of Chemical & Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)
3. Yap Zhen Shyong (School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering)

Science and Technology

1. Muhammad Salleh Shamsudin (Faculty of Science)
2. Yap Suk Wy (Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology)
3. Nor’asnilawati Salleh (Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics)

Social Science and Humanities

1. Khasturi Ramalingam (School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities)
2. Kannaih @ Kanniah A/L Jogulu (School of Education, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities)
3. Nazirul Fariq Mohd Kassim (Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics)

This competition was a great initiative to provide a platform for all PhD students to develop academic, presentation and research communication skills while developing research candidates’ ability to effectively explain their research in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience. They may go on to represent their university at national and international 3MT competitions which provides an excellent networking and professional development opportunity.