SENG Students Bagged Three Awards at 2025 HKUST Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition

The 2025 HKUST Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition saw three out of four awardees from the School of Engineering. [Download Photo]

The 2025 HKUST Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition, organized by the School of Engineering (SENG) and the Fok Ying Tung Graduate School (FYTGS), took place during the spring semester of the 2024-25 academic year. This year marked a record high in entries, with candidates from all five Schools of HKUST, representing 10 different economies.

After three days of pre-selection, eight finalists from three Schools – including five from SENG – were chosen for the final round held on April 9, 2025. Following their engaging presentations, which included a brief Q&A session after each, Alessandro BUFFOLI, a PhD student in the Department of Marketing, emerged as the Champion. The First Runner-Up was Zahrasadat HOSSEINI from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, while Nahid KHODABAKHSHI from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering secured the Second Runner-Up position. Additionally, Chrissen Juvileen Dela Cruz GALANG from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering was voted the People’s Choice.

The judging panel for the 2025 HKUST 3MT® Competition comprised:

• Prof. Albert CHUNG – Associate Dean of Engineering (Research and Graduate Studies)
• Prof. Ralf VAN DER LANS – Director of PhD/MPhil Programs, School of Business and Management
• Prof. WANG Yi – PG Programs Coordinator, Department of Physics
• Prof. ZHAI Chengxing – PG Programs Coordinator, Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas
• Dr. William LEE – Lecturer, Center for Language Education
• Dr. Nicolson SIU – Lecturer, Division of Social Science

Developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT® Competition is now a globally recognized event held in over 900 universities across more than 85 countries and regions worldwide. The competition challenges doctoral students to succinctly explain their research to a non-specialist audience in just 180 seconds.

At HKUST, SENG started hosting the 3MT® Competition in 2014. In 2018, through the collaboration of SENG and FYTGS (formerly the Office of Postgraduate Studies), the competition was expanded to the university level and welcomed research students from all Schools and programs to participate. Since 2015, HKUST students who have won in the internal 3MT® Competition have represented the University to compete in the Asia-Pacific competition held in Brisbane, Australia. Notably in 2021, Chemical and Biological Engineering PhD student Usman Bin SHAHID won the People’s Choice Award in the Virtual Asia-Pacific 3MT® Competition, becoming the first awardee from a Hong Kong university in this event.

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