Petrina Low Hui Xian, a third-year PhD candidate at the Early Cognition Lab, clinched first place at the 3-Minutes-Thesis (3MT) presentation competition held by the NTU School of Social Sciences.
The aim of the 3MT competition is to nurture graduate students’ science communication skills. Specifically, students are challenged to deliver research findings to non-specialist audiences using only one presentation slide.
Presentations were judged on factors such as clarity, stage presence, articulation, engagement, as well as whether the language used was appropriate for a non-specialist audience.Â
For winning the top spot, Petrina was awarded with a cash prize and will be representing the School of Social Sciences in the university-wide NTU 3MT in June. Let’s hear from Petrina as she reflects on the experience.
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- What is your 3MT presentation about?
My 3MT was on parenting by lying, my thesis topic! I talked about what parental lies were, why parents lie, and what happens to children when parents lie, which are the key components of my research projects so far. -  How do you feel about winning first place?
I was very surprised and grateful to come in first! I received much help from the lab members who gave very useful feedback for my slide and script, and I could not have done so well without their invaluable help. - What was the process leading up to the presentation like? For example, how did you prepare for the presentation?
When preparing for the presentation, I tried to organise my presentation into about 1 minute per each component I wanted to discuss in the 3MT, and also practiced the script to make sure that I would be within the time limit.
Our lab members kindly gave me feedback and suggestions for improving the slide, and I also asked my family for their opinions as my test run non-specialist audience on my script. I have to give credit to my sister who does design for helping me improving the visuals of my slide too! - How do you plan to apply your success and skills learnt from the presentation to your future endeavours?
This was a very useful experience in communicating my research in simple and appropriate terms, which will surely come in handy when I want to discuss my research in broader areas. I hope to be able to get more confidence in presenting and communicating my research in the future, and I can use this experience to help other lab members when they prepare for their 3MT too!