Awwal Oladipupo wins People’s Choice Award at Three Minute Thesis competition
The 3MT People’s Choice Award, voted on by the audience, recognizes the presentation that resonated most with event attendees.
Chemical Engineering PhD candidate Awwal Oladipupo was honored with the People’s Choice Award at the University of Michigan’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition.
The competition, which was held this past February, challenged Michigan Engineering graduate students to present their research in just three minutes using only a single PowerPoint slide. Participants were evaluated on their ability to explain their research question, methodology, results, and potential impact in a way that was accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Oladipupo’s winning presentation, titled “Multilayered Machine-Learned Interatomic Model for Fast Design, and Discovery of Materials,” showcased innovative approaches to accelerating material discovery using machine learning techniques. As member of the Lindsey Lab, Oladipupo’s work aims to revolutionize the development of new materials by improving predictive modeling and reducing the time needed for discovery.
“We’re conducting groundbreaking research at the University of Michigan, and I was thrilled to share my work,” said Oladipupo. “This recognition means a lot to me, highlighting the impact my research would have on advancing material design and discovery.”
Several other Chemical Engineering graduate students also reached the final round of the competition, including Sahil Halarnkar, Trang Hoang, Maurycy Krzyzanowski, Andres Miranda Manon, Fan-Wei Wang, Mohammad Asadi Tokmedash, and Chih-Mei Young.
The 3MT competition, originally developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, has become an international event designed to help PhD students refine their research communication skills. Hosted by the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and sponsored by the Office of the Associate Dean for Graduate & Professional Education in partnership with the Office of Student Affairs, the competition encourages participants to distill complex scientific ideas into clear and engaging presentations.