Competitors in the university's first 3MT competition.The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Graduate School crowned the winner of its first Three Minute Thesis – 3MT competition – on Thursday, Feb. 8. Melanie Desmuke, a Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education and Health Professions, advised by Dr. Linda Dorn, stole the competition with her synopsis of 鈥淐ulturally Responsive Teaching,鈥� which addressed the cultural and linguistic gap between black and Latino students and their teachers.鈥淐ulturally responsive teaching requires teachers to identify, value, and honor the cultural and linguistic differences, rather than deficits, of each of their students,鈥� Desmuke explained. 鈥淭eachers must keep in mind that even within a cultural or social group, there are within-group differences that should be identified and considered when developing instructional lessons.鈥� 聽Following the competition, Desmuke was awarded $500. In addition, she will represent 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in the regional 3MT competition in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday, Feb. 24. The 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Graduate School will cover the trip鈥檚 expenses. He Zhang, a doctoral student in the College of Engineering and Information Technology, snagged second place with his presentation, 鈥淩obocane: Indoor GPS, Guiding White Cane.鈥� Zhang, advised by Dr. Xian Liu, received $300.Other competition participants included:
Karrer Agjhazali, College of Arts, Letters and Sciences: 鈥淎 Nano-bases Scaffold, Bioactive System for Nerve Injury Recovery.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Alexandru Biris.
Suzan Anwar, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淩eal Time Eye Blink Detection for Monitoring Drivers.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Mariofanna Milanova.
Kevin Golden, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淚dentifying Fraudulent Retail-Consumer Transactions using Cluster Analysis.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Daniel Berleant.
Abdulrahman Homadi, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淓xperimental and Modeling a Novel Thermo-Magneto-Electrical Linear Generator.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Lawrence Whitman.
James Hurst, College of Social Sciences and Communication: 鈥淔raming Fear: The Campus Environment.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Tusty ten Bensel.
Juan Sebastian Munoz Arango, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淢ulti-user VR.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Dirk Reiners.
Yu Nie, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淒oes Chief Data Officer Matter?鈥� Advisor, Dr. John Talburt.
Ujwani Nukala, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淎re you Prepared for Emergency Nuclear Alerts?鈥� Advisor, Dr. Cesar Compadre.
Brenda Prochaska, College of Social Sciences and Communication: 鈥淭he Contextual Factors that Matter in Juvenile Transfer.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Tusty ten Bensel.
Rajat Singh, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淢uscle Synergies.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Kamran Iqbal.
Junxiu Zhou, College of Engineering and Information Technology: 鈥淪mart Cane.鈥� Advisor, Dr. Xian Liu.
Each participant was awarded a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card and a certificate of appreciation.
The competition was organized by Kristi Wright, business manager of the Graduate School, and judged by Dr. Sherry Rankins-Robertson from the College of Social Sciences and Communications, Dr. Kent Layton from the College of Education and Health Professions, Dr. Nawab Ali from the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences, and Dr. Elizabeth Pierce from the College of Engineering and Information Technology.“The Graduate School is also very appreciative of the collaboration with the Communication Skills Center, which hosted a series of workshops last fall聽 for doctoral students interested in the 3MT competition,” said聽Dr. Abhijit Bhattacharyya, interim vice provost for Research and dean of the Graduate School.聽For more information, contact Bhattacharyya at [email protected].
