Talking short, standing tall: Dal PhD student competes in national Three‑Minute Thesis finals

When Ubong Peters entered Dal’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, he didn’t necessarily have his sights set on winning.

“I was focused on learning from the experience,” explains the Biomedical Engineering PhD student.

“I wanted to get hands-on practice at developing an effective ‘elevator pitch’ for my research, a simple way of explaining, if asked, what I’ve done over the past six years. I have so many interesting results, so I knew it was going to be a challenge.”

Ubong rose to that challenge: after taking home first prize at the Dalhousie event in March, he flew to Newfoundland to compete in the Eastern Regional 3MT competition at Memorial University on April 27. There, he finished in second place — good enough to gain entry to the national finals.

“The competition was quite stiff, and while I really wanted to bring home the top prize, there were a lot of excellent students and I’m quite happy with my second place finish,” says Ubong.

Voting currently underway

The national 3MT finals, which are now underway, are different than the school and regional competitions in that the contestants don’t compete in person. Instead, a panel of judges — including CBC Ideas producers Tom Howell and Nicola Luksic, CIHR Director General Danika Goosney and Tragically Hip Guitarist Rob Baker — will assess the competitors based on videos filmed at their respective regional showdowns.

And, as is the case with most 3MT competitions, there’s also a People’s Choice component: all of the finalists’ videos are online, and you can vote for Ubong or one of the other contestants to help them earn a $500 prize. (The winner of the judged competition will receive $1,500, with second place receiving $1,000.)

Voting for the people’s choice award closes at 4 p.m. Atlantic time on Thursday, May 19.

Vote now: Vote for your favourite 3MT finalist

Sharing his research

Ubong, who hopes to defend his dissertation this summer in anticipation of graduating in the fall, studies medical devices used to help assess respiratory illnesses such as asthma and other ailments. The traditional way of assessing the severity of respiratory symptoms is with a technique known as spirometry, in which a patient takes a deep breath and blows out air as fast and hard as possible into a measurement device.

The problem with traditional spirometry, as Ubong explains in his 3MT presentation, is it has very little to do with how we breathe in our normal lives and can often give false negative results. For example, patients with obesity can often have respiratory problems that go undetected by spirometric devices.

In the first part of Ubong’s research, he worked with Geoff Maksym, director of Dal’s School of Biomedical Engineering, on the development of a device known as tremoFlo. The device — now a product offered by spin-out company Thorasys — sends small puffs of air into the lungs while patients breathe normally, assessing how easy or difficult it is for air to move in and out of the lungs. In the second part of his research, Ubong tested the device on patients with severe obesity before and after weight-loss surgery. The patients demonstrated improved breathing after their weight loss as well as an improvement in sleep quality, with Ubong’s research confirming the Tremoflo technique is more sensitive to measuring breathing difficulties.

Support from the community

Ubong says he’s had great support from Dr. Maksym as well as his co-supervisors: Dr. Gail Dechman (School of Physiotherapy) and Dr. Paul Hernandez (head of the Division of Respirology) as well as surgeon Dr. James Ellsmere, all of whom played key roles in his research.

When asked how many times he’s had to practice his 3MT speech, he says it’d be impossible to count — but it’s been a lot. Now, though, with his video recorded, he awaits word on how he does in the national competition.

“I’ve really enjoyed [the competition] and happy I’ve been able to make the people in our lab and across Dal proud,” he says. “It’s been a truly rewarding experience.”

Vote now: Vote for your favourite 3MT finalist