PolyU BME PhD student Huang Lai, Cheron won the First Runner-up at the PolyU Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Final Competition
Four winners: the champion and People’s Choice Winner (Ms Lam Wing-tung, Winnie, middle), the first-runner up (Mr Lai Huang, Cheron, to the right of the champion) and two second-runner ups (Ms Chen Zhuoan, Joanna, to the left of the champion, and Ms Wong Chun-ching, Shirley, seven from the left) in a group picture with all judges and the hosts from the Graduate School and the English Language Centre.
After winning the First Runner-up at the Faculty of Engineering Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®), BME PhD student Huang LAI, Cheron advanced to the PolyU Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Final Competition and won the First Runner-up at the competition on 3 July 2024, with his research topic “Droplet Microfluidics for Single-T-cell Activation in situ Analysis”.
Eight finalists pitched their research significance to the wide audience at the Final Competition, which commenced with the opening speeches of the Dean of Graduate School, Professor Cao Jiannong and the Vice President (Research and Innovation), Professor Christopher Chao. Unveiling the competition, the eight finalists expressed their charisma and professionally pitched their research using only one static slide within three minutes.
“This is a value-adding experience to develop transferable skills for the infinite future, be it in academia, industry or entrepreneurship. Students are encouraged to proactively seize opportunities to strengthen their skillsets through development activities and research collaborations”, highlighting the importance of 3MT by Professor Cao Jiannong.
Professor Christopher Chao emphasised the strategic direction of PolyU to “propel research innovation and research excellence. With the highly-demanded skillsets in effective pitching and communications, grasping and communicating the main idea for support is becoming increasingly essential”.
The eight finalists came from diverse disciplines of civil and environmental engineering, building and real estate, English and communication, biomedical engineering, rehabilitation sciences, and food science and nutrition. Their research topics are testaments of the niche expertise of PolyU research postgraduate studies. The winners were highly-commended for their displayed concise communications, effective storytelling, influential public speaking and interactive audience engagement. Towards the end, all finalists were appreciated for their focused hard work, perseverance and confidence. Arranged refreshments and networking opportunity wrapped up the PolyU 3MT competition.
Learn more about Huang LAI’s performance: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/3mt/hall-of-fame/2024/#first_runner_up
