[Background music] 
[ Speaking: Lynne Klasko-Foster, PhD Student in Community Health and Health Behavior ] 
[Sitting taking with an advisor] 
I had been a community-based researcher
for a very long time. So I've been out in
Three Minute Thesis
Communicating Doctoral Research
[Lynne speaking in a historic room in the HSL] the community talking to people giving presentations to lay audiences. About
other people's work, and being coached to
do it. But I found that it was actually
[Shot of Lynne with advisor] really difficult to take my own work and convert it to like take all the jargon
out, and convert it to something that a
lay audience could appreciate. [Speaking: Philip Odonkor, PhD Students in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering] [Philip speaking in computer lab] I've
always thought I was a good presenter
and I could present in front of people
no problems. But often I had to do that
with no time limit. Bringing in that time
[Philip speaking with his advisor in different lab] element all of sudden that threw me off. Of course I wasn't really sure how to
handle it. [Speaking: Naila Sahar, PhD Student, in English] [Speaking in historic HSL room] Why I decided to do it was basically to
see my potential. [Speaking: Sandra Flash, Associate Dean, Graduate School] [Philip walking and speaking with his advisor] We teach graduate students how to communicate their
[Sandra speaking from her office desk] research to a general audience. And this is a skill that they will use for the
rest of their lives. They might find this
useful in a job interview, they might
find it useful at a family picnic
talking to an aunt. [Shot of Lynne researching in the HSL main reading room] We want to make sure
that they can always explain their
research in an easy, succinct way [Sandra at her desk] to any audience.
[Speaking: Naila] [Speaking in historic HSL room] I would definitely recommend other people to do this because this
kind of narrows down your very huge
research question. You get to know so
much more about your research. And you
are in the process of analyzing yourself
whether your research question does
really matter or it doesn't.  [ Speaking: Lynne] 
[Shot in office with advisor ] To be able
to say it succinctly. To translate 150
pages into a couple minutes is really
valuable. [Shot of Lynne in historic HSL room] So I would encourage all of my peers to try out for the 3MT contest. [Shot of Philip walking on UB North Campus] It
gives me an opportunity to actually take
like a wide-angle view on my own
research. Because often I'm focused on
just the little things, [Shot of Philip in computer lab] 
the details. But
then often it's nice to just take a step
back [shot of Philip waking inside Furnas Hall from behind] and look at the wide, the bigger
picture. And understand what role your
research actually plays in the world. 
[End title with UB logo]
