Important Dates for 2017 Competition
| Registration Deadline | January 29, 2017 by 11:59pm |
| Succeed! Workshop: Creating a 90 Second Thesis Pitch | January 19, 2017 4 -5 pm in Sewell Hall 309 |
| 90 Second Thesis Orientation | January 27, 2017 10 – 11 am in McMurtry Auditorium |
| Script Coaching Sessions with CWOVC | January 30 – February 23, 2017 |
| Presentation Coaching with CWOVC | February 24 – March 1, 2017 |
| Dress Rehearsals | March 2 – 3, 2017 |
| 90 Second Thesis Competition | March 3, 2017 5 – 8 pm in McMurtry Auditorium |
Why should you participate?
- Receive professional coaching
- Improve your public speaking skills
- Learn to communicate to a broad audience
- Enhance your CV
- Obtain a professional video of your talk to share with others
- Prepare for a thesis defense, conference talk, or interview
- Promote your research
- Discover ways to convey the impact of your research
- Network with alumni
- Win prizes!
Eligibility
- Graduate students from all disciplines and any year of study are encouraged to apply.
- Students may present their research project, proposal, paper, thesis, or dissertation.
- Students do not need to be writing their thesis or dissertation to compete. However, the student will need to be able to clearly establish the context of their research question, explain their methodology or approach, identify current findings and/or results, and convey the significance of their work.
Rules
- Each contestant will have 90 seconds to engage the audience intellectually and communicate the uniqueness and significance of their research topic.
- Points will be deducted if a contestant exceeds the 90 second time limit.
- Contestants are required to participate in at least one coaching session prior to the competition. If you do not sign-up for coaching, you will not be eligible to participate.
- A small hand-held prop is allowed, if it is appropriate and helps describe the research topic. However, we do not encourage the use of props, because it can distract from the speaker’s message. Ideally, you should be able to effectively communicate your research topic without the prop.
- PowerPoint slides are not permitted.
Scoring Rubric
- Judges will score each contestant on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent.
- Contestants will be judged on message and delivery.
- Message: Contestants should be able to engage the audience, clearly communicate their research questions, explain the relevance of the problem, and describe the methodology and results in terms easily understood by a broad audience.
- Delivery: Contestants should engage the audience by projecting confidence and excitement and using appropriate gestures, vocal variation and clear diction.
Click here for more information regarding the scoring rubric and judging process.
