College Holds “Annual Three-Minute Thesis: Hot Topics in NSM” Symposium
On Friday, Oct. 27, NSM held its annual “Hot Topics in NSM,” a three-minute thesis competition.
Eight graduate students representing all six departments presented their research efforts in three minutes or less using a single static graphic. Each participant then spent a few more minutes answering questions from the audience.
A panel consisting of a graduate student from each department served as the judges.
First Place
Top honors were awarded to Abhinav Bagchi of the Department of Biology & Biochemistry for the presentation of “Regulation of Liver X Receptor b (LXRb) Protein Stability in Pancreatic Cancer Cells.” Mr. Bagchi conducted that research under the supervision of Dr. Chin-Yo Lin.
Second Place
The second place award went to Clayton Donald of the Department of Chemistry for the presentation of “Methods to Mimic Nature.” Mr. Donald’s research was pursued in the laboratory of Dr. Jeremy May.
“Most Popular” Awards
There was also a “most popular” award voted on by the audience in attendance.
Aranya Giri, Department of Physics, won that award for “Understanding the Building Block of Matter,” which was pursued under the direction of Dr. Rene Bellwied. Felix Minta of the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences took second place for “Earth-Facing Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) Transit Times Estimate Using Artificial Neural Network.” Mr. Minta’s research was performed under the mentorship of Dr. Honghai Zhang.
Chemini Pathiraja from Dr. Byron Freelon’s group in the Department of Physics, Sen Lin from Dr. Robert Azencott’s group in the Department of Mathematics, Salma Bibi from Dr. Honghai Zhang’s group in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, and MD Tanim Hasan from Dr. Ionnis Pavlidis’s group in the Department of Computer Science also presented research.