Lauren Hultquist, a Master of Arts in Psychology student, received the top award in the 2024 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for her presentation “Keyboard Warriors,” an examination of the nature of online anonymity, including its effect on dark personality traits.
The event, sponsored by the Thomas L. Reynolds Center for Graduate Life and Learning, was held Nov. 22 in the Rowe Auditorium. It was the final round in this year’s 3MT competition challenging students to succinctly summarize their research to a general audience in three minutes or less. This year’s ten finalists gathered to compete before the largest audience seen in the program’s nine-year history at Charlotte with more than 100 people attending to witness the fruit of many weeks of research, practice and passion.
As the first-place winner, Hultquist will represent UNC Charlotte in the 3MT regional competition as part of the March 2025 meeting of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools in Dallas, Texas.
Second place in the 3MT event went to Vedika Judyani, a Master’s in Bioinformatics student, for her presentation “AI-Driven Insights into Viral Recombination,” addressing how AI can be used to study viral life cycles and potentially anticipate major outbreaks.
Brandon Bendickson, also in the Bioinformatics program, earned third place with a presentation entitled “Mitigating Bias in the Genomic Analysis of Several Tomato Varieties,” all about refining the processes used to identify resilient, flavorful tomato breeds in the face of global warming.
The audience had a chance to participate by voting for their favorite finalist on a separate ballot. The finalist with the most audience votes received the People's Choice Award. Sarah Tesar, a Master of Social Work student, won the People’s Choice Award for her presentation, “Peer-Led Sexual Health Education for Older Adults in Congregate Living.”
This year’s finalists first had to make it through preliminary rounds in October which attracted more than 60 students across many different UNC Charlotte graduate programs. The final round was open only to the ten speakers with the highest scores. In addition to valuable experience, finalists had the opportunity to win cash prizes, which were larger than ever this year thanks to the generous sponsorship of Raju Law.
Our thanks go out to our judges for this year’s competition, including Glen Kowalchuk, MD, Cardiologist at Atrium Health; Jack Parrish, Owner of Sunflour Bakery; Scott McFarlane, UNC Charlotte Graduate, Senior Staff Engineer at LendingTree; and Tejashri Arote, UNC Charlotte Graduate, Software Development Engineer at Texas Instruments.
Other finalists included:
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Caroline West, Bioinformatics: There’s a Virus in my Bacteria in the Fungus in the Plant
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An inquiry into the role bacteriophages play in the lethality of bacteria, and what that could mean for future medical research.
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Sina Gholami, Electrical Engineering: Application of AI in Ophthalmology
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Surveying the potential of AI in diagnosing optical issues and why federated learning between institutions is the best, most private way to capitalize on this tool.
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Emanuela Likskendaj Izquierdo, English: Identity Negotiation for Parents in Multilingual Families
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Interviews conducted with multilingual families reveals a pathway for children to incorporate understanding of both their parents’ cultures.
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Heather McBride, Bioinformatics: Overexpression of Biofiltering Genes Across Several Species of Endangered Unionidae
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An examination of possible reasons why certain freshwater mussels, which play a key role in the health of their surrounding ecosystems, are dying out.
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Dylan Marrotte, Bioinformatics: Unlocking Biological Insights: Visualizing Big Data with the Integrated Genome Browser
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Experimental coding in the Integrated Genome Browser could create a more efficient and accurate experience for researchers.
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Maitree Patel, Bioinformatics: Bacterial “Triglycerides” Increase Agricultural Productivity: A Computational Approach to Improved Microbial Viability
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Testing across five different bacterial genome highlight ways to make better sustainable microbe cultures for agricultural use
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Congratulations to the winners, finalists and to all graduate students who participated!