Kyushu University: Kyushu U’s 3MT finalist participates in Asia-Pacific competition, voting now open

On Friday, October 1, 2021, the award ceremony for the Kyushu U 3MT Competition 2021 was held at the Shiiki Hall on the Ito Campus.

The 3MT Competition is an international competition in which PhD students present their research in English in three minutes using only one slide. It started in 2008 at the University of Queensland (Australia), one of our partner universities, and has become a well-known and highly regarded competition.

This was the first time the competition was held at Kyushu University, and 33 students from 10 graduate schools participated. Ten students who made it through the first round of the competition advanced to the finals held online on Friday, July 30. The judges included Trevor Holloway, Consul General, Australian Consulate-General, Osaka; Professor Lydia Kavanagh, University of Queensland; Yasufumi Hirai, Group Executive Vice President, CIO & CISO, Rakuten, Inc.

After a Q&A session, the three winners were selected as a result of the screening. The event was a great success, with the judges giving comments directly to the students, which was very beneficial to the students. The students and judges were very positive about the event, wishing that it would be held again next year.

Among the winners, the winner, Ms. Mariia Ivonina, is participating in the Asia-Pacific competition, and the competition will be held online, with audience voting.