Sreevalsan Menon, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, won first place in S&T’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition on Feb. 24. It was held virtually to ensure COVID-19 social distancing protocols.

Menon impressed the judges with his research presentation titled “Identification of Brain Neuromarkers in Health and Disease.” He also received the People’s Choice Award, as determined by audience voting.

Menon will advance to the regional 3MT competition hosted by the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools. It will be held virtually Wednesday, March 24, through Friday, March 26. He will compete for a chance to present his research at a national competition.

Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy, a master’s degree student in systems engineering, was named the runner-up. Krishnamoorthy’s presentation was titled “Multi-Hop Question Answering.”

During the competition, graduate student contestants have only three minutes and a single PowerPoint slide to discuss their research and explain the importance to a non-specialist audience and judging panel. Contestants are judged on comprehension, content, communication and engagement.

Judges included Rolla community members Judge Mark Calvert, alumni Lister Florence and Ryan Buschjost, Layla Earl and John Butz. Additional community and campus members were involved in preliminary judging rounds.

The 3MT competition originated with the University of Queensland, New Zealand, and is now held annually at over 900 universities worldwide.