Explaining Years of Research in Three Minutes: An OVC 3MT® Winner’s Perspective

Graduate research involves years of study, but what if you had only three minutes to explain it? The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition challenges graduate students to present their research, its significance and its broader impact in a compelling and accessible way—using only one slide. 

For the 2025 3MT® Competition, OVC will hold its college heat on March 25th from 9:00–10:00 a.m., where the top two presenters will advance to the University of Guelph 3MT® Final on April 24th. The U of G final winner will advance to the 2025 Provincial Finals, hosted by the University of Toronto. The competition offers invaluable public speaking and research communication skills and prizes. 

To provide insight into the experience, we spoke with last year’s OVC 3MT® winner, Bianca Garlisi.

What motivated you to participate in the 3MT® competition, and how did you prepare for your presentation? 

The year prior to my competition year, I saw an email asking for our votes in the ‘Community Choice’ section of the 3MT, and I had never heard of this competition before so I quickly took a look at the video posted. I was super interested in the fact that someone could take all the hours of reading and in lab research, and put together a three-minute talk, but also tell it like a story to be understood by everyone. I thought in that moment, what story could I use to explain my work—sometimes it even confuses me. I just started to think about what reminded me of what I’m trying to solve in my project, which led me to my grocery store analogy. Here, I compared the messy vessels of the tumour microenvironment to that of a locked grocery store with messy and collapsed aisles. In this situation, the milk at the back of the store was the tumour and the customers were the therapies and immune cells trying to reach it. To prepare, I practiced with different friends who were not in the same field and got their opinions on what they understood or what they found helpful.

What was the biggest challenge you faced during the competition, and how did you overcome it? 

The biggest challenge was narrowing down my research into a concise three-minute speech. When you conduct your own research, you find everything about your work interesting, so choosing what to include was difficult. To overcome this, I initially wrote out a full-length version of my speech without any time constraints. With each practice session, I eliminated parts that were not essential to the bigger picture, refining the talk until only the most critical and impactful elements remained. 

How has participating in 3MT® benefited you academically, professionally or personally? 

3MT® helped me develop the ability to condense three years of research into a meaningful, engaging, and informative three-minute talk. This is a crucial skill for professional life, where we won’t always have the luxury of delivering a 30-minute presentation with multiple slides to an audience of specialists. On a personal level, it has also helped me explain my work outside of academia. We are all familiar with the experience of going home for the holidays and being asked, “So, what do you study?” Now, I can finally answer that question in a way that makes sense to everyone! 

What was your experience like on competition day, and what stood out to you the most? 

Standing in front of an audience without notes was nerve-wracking, but that’s a challenge we often face in graduate school. However, it was incredibly rewarding to see the audience nod in understanding as I finished my introduction, and the pieces of my story started to come together. What stood out to me the most was watching the other competitors present. It was fascinating to see the creative ways students made their research engaging. Small details in their storytelling and presentation styles made it easy to follow their work, even in such a short timeframe. 

How did competing in the College Heat prepare you for the University of Guelph 3MT® Final? What were the key differences between these stages? 

In the video, Bianca Garlisi competes in the 2024 U of G 3MT® Competition.

Competing in my college heat was an invaluable experience. I received constructive feedback that helped refine both my speech and my one static slide. It also allowed me to observe how the audience responded to different parts of my story and whether my message was coming across as intended. One key difference was the audience size—the University of Guelph Final had a much larger audience, which was more intimidating. Additionally, since the final featured the top two competitors from each college, I was no longer presenting only among people in my field. Instead, I was hearing research from a wide range of disciplines, making the experience even more diverse and engaging. 

The 3MT® competition is more than just a public speaking contest—it is an opportunity to refine your communication skills, engage with a broad audience, and make your research accessible beyond academia. Whether your goal is to boost your confidence, gain recognition for your work, or compete for top prizes, 3MT® is an experience that will leave a lasting impact. Register to participate in this year’s OVC College heat. Will you be this year’s 3MT® champion?