It was in one of the lecture rooms in the Faculty of Science and Engineering within the now old John Dalton building, a nice evening in April 2023, where an induction session was held for volunteers for an innovative sport engineering research initiative. I was half an hour late for a 1 hour 30 minute session because of my MSc research experiment, that was my priority, and I had to complete the test for that day. I had no idea what was in store for me at the orientation session for Engineering Ambassadors in a primary school outreach session, to spark up engineering interest in the children at selected primary schools in Manchester. At this session I became fully aware of the 3 Minute Thesis competition (3MT®) from the 2019 Vitae Three Minute Thesis UK judge’s choice winner, Shruti Mandhani of Sheffield Hallam University, a facilitator at the session. The goal was to take engineering research to children, and this must be presented in a less technical way for the children to understand. Shruti shared her 3MT video, and it ignited my interest in participating, leading to asking a curious question about the hours that went into preparing for the three-minute presentation, and the response was that it took days and between, were sleepless nights, adrenalin pumping moments, doubts, motivation, and excitement. I thought to myself, all of this for a three-minute presentation. But I would later find, after participating in one, that there is more – it lives with you forever. The outcome of all the preparation stays with you through every engagement such as conferences, networking sessions, also at social events when you must share what you do – you don’t want to leave your audience more confused about your work.
With this background, at the start of my PhD in April 2024, participating in the 3MT competition was on my bucket list. After my bachelor’s degree in engineering, I never had a core engineering work experience in over 15 years of work, except at my one year internship-like programme in Nigeria, called National Youth Service Corp, immediately after my bachelor degree. I wanted so bad to transition to a core engineering industry. This led me to rekindling my engineering competence with an MSc in Engineering and then a PhD, I want all in and I wanted to get involved in everything that will increase my capacity and make up for all those years that I’ve been away from engineering.
At the Welcome coffee chat for new Doctoral students, the 3MT competition was mentioned, all in attendance would have noticed my interest. Then came a call for entries and barring the doubts and nerves, I pushed myself to submit my research abstract. The Faculty Heat was scheduled, there was no going back. I started preparation, I must say at this point, the resources provided by the doctoral services were inexhaustible, from the school website and external links, I found them very useful. The faculty heat was the “grass” for me, my performance was the worst or so I thought, and for a moment, I nursed the thought of opting out. I froze on stage! During this time, three minutes seemed like forever!! I am not one that’s afraid of speaking in front of an audience, I’ve done so, comfortably at other forums for years but on this day, I lost my lines. But the judges feedback was more positive with clear mention of areas for improvement, the judges pinned the performance on a technical glitch that occurred at the start of my presentation, it made me feel better, but right inside me, I refused to blame it on the machine, I have more work to do. Following the advice of previous 3MT winners, to make my story a part of me and not only memorised the lines. I followed a regimented preparation pattern, my kids were my audience. I made multiple three minute presentations to myself while I walked to the bus or train station, I also recorded myself in audio and video at different times, making changes to meet the requirements. I believe all these preparations took me to “grace” at the Manchester Met finals and earned me the Judges first choice and a place at the 2024 Vitae Three Minute Thesis UK (3MT®) competition, representing our prestigious University.
Finally, I like to end by sharing my three key motivations to participating in the 2024 Manchester Met Three Minute Thesis UK (3MT®) competition:
- The lifelong experience of participating.
- To create awareness for my research work, the problem, and the proposed solution.
- To get exposure for myself and generate potential funding opportunities for my self-funded research degree.
While I can categorically confirm that I have realised the benefits of number one and ongoing, the numbers two and three benefits will be realised over time, fingers crossed! These notwithstanding, every doctoral student is encouraged to participate in the 3MT competition. In our recent world of interdisciplinary collaboration in research, at some point in your programme, because as it is said, PhD study can be very lonely, participating in the 3MT competition can be a breakout period for you, trust me, it will be fun!
