Microwave Week 2020 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition Rules

2020 is the fourth year of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition at Microwave Week. The purpose of the 3MT® Competition is to showcase those students and young professionals who have distilled their highly complex, technical research into presentations accessible to non-specialists, and to video those presentations for use on IMS’s YouTube channel as well as IMS/MTT-S Social Media channels, attracting students to the microwave profession, and demonstrating to the general public the relevance and importance of microwaves and related technical fields.

What is 3MT®, Why is it Beneficial, How is it Judged, and How to Prepare
 

Three Minute Thesis Competition Submission Requirements and Selection Process 

1. All authors wishing to participate in the competition are required to follow the regular electronic paper submission process for their respective conference (IMS, RFIC, or ARFTG). Papers must be identified as 3MT® Competition submissions during the electronic submission process. Only one 3MT® presentation per accepted paper will be allowed.

2. To be considered, the author must be a Student or Young Professional (YP); YPs are defined by IEEE as post-student members who are within 15 years of receiving their first professional degree.

3. 3MT® submissions are reviewed by the respective (IMS, RFIC, or ARFTG) Technical Paper Review Committees (TPRC) the same as all other paper submissions. Only those papers that (a) are selected by the TPRC for inclusion in the technical program, (b) are self-identified as 3MT® submissions by the author(s), and (c) meet the 3MT® criteria listed here, are eligible to participate in the 3MT® Competition. Contestants will be selected and recommended by the 2020 3MT® Competition committee from the eligible 3MT® submissions. Any accepted contestant may speak only once, with no substitutions.

4. Self-identified 3MT® candidates whose paper has been accepted by the TPRC will be invited to submit a 30-second video presentation. This will assist the 2020 3MT® Competition committee in reaching its final selection of contestants.

5. 3MT® contestants will receive email notifications by March 2020. Confirmation of receipt must be sent via email by within a week of notification. The confirmation email should address all items requested in the email notification.

6. The 3MT® contestants will be invited to make a presentation of three minutes or less, supported only by one static slide, subject to the rules of the 3MT® Competition, in addition to their regular technical presentation. Following multiple group and individual Zoom meetings, rehearsal and problem-solving opportunities, 3MT® presentations are finally recorded 'live' during time-limited, individual video sessions over Zoom by the competition organizers. The resulting videos are edited only for file size and to be placed in a common template. These videos will be streamed to the audience and judges in sequence during the virtual 3MT® Competition event.

7. 3MT® presentations will be ranked by a panel of non-specialist judges on how engaging, accessible, and compelling the contestants made their presentation. The top winners, together with an Audience Choice winner, will be announced and awards will be presented during Microwave Week 2020. It is planned to award cash prizes to the top three ranked contestants and to the Audience Choice winner.