Three Minute Thesis

The College of Graduate Studies has partnered with the Division of Research and Innovation to host a “Three-Minute Thesis” competition at the SDSU Student Symposium. This event runs in parallel with S3 and provides an additional opportunity for SDSU master’s and doctoral students to showcase their research, scholarship, or other creative work.

During the competition, graduate students will be judged by a panel based on their ability to successfully engage a non-specialist audience while communicating key details about their research, scholarship, or other creative work in three minutes or less with just a single PowerPoint slide.

This is an excellent opportunity for students to showcase their ability to present the same research in different formats and to different audiences. A condensed presentation time, limited visual aids and no guarantee of subject matter experts as judges, the Three Minute Thesis Competition is a near perfect simulation of an elevator pitch for your research. 

The top two presenters will receive a monetary prize (First Prize $500; Second Prize $250) and will compete in the CSU Grad Slam Competition (virtual) hosted by California State University San Bernardino. Students are eligible to receive prizes from both the Three Minute Thesis competition as well as other S3 awards.

If you are a graduate student and would like to present at the three-minute thesis competition, please indicate your interest when registering for S3. Participation is not guaranteed; the College of Graduate Studies will review interested participants and invite finalists to compete.