University of Iowa engineering students are rewriting the script to show that one can be an excellent engineer and an excellent communicator.

The Graduate College holds a university-wide Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for graduate students to communicate complex research clearly and concisely to a non-specialist audience in no more than 180 seconds.

When David Ramotowski, a PhD candidate in civil and environmental engineering, won the competition this fall for his topic, “Unlikely Heroes: Keeping Toxic PCBs Out of Our Air with Bacteria and Biochar,” it was the fourth consecutive victory by a College of Engineering student, all from CEE.

Riley Post, the 2021 winner, attributed the success to CEE’s requirement of four semesters of the Communication Coaching Seminar in addition to the public speaking course required by the college.

“In this seminar students hone their research narratives in a variety of formats and get a lot of direct feedback from multiple instructors,” Post said. “The fact that the past four 3MT winners are products of the CEE system is a testament to how important this course is to the department’s graduate curriculum.”

Hundreds of universities worldwide have embraced the 3MT competition format to enhance presentation, research and academic communication skills, and support the development of research students' capacity to explain their work effectively.

The exercise helps students gain experience in effectively explaining their research while avoiding overwhelming the listener with jargon, advanced terminology, and too much technical detail.

The University of Queensland, Australia, is credited with launching the 3MT format in 2008.