3 minutes thesis competition : some tips and tricks

Few days after I came back from shoort trip to Pangkor, I've participated in the 3 minute thesis (3MT) competition organized by my faculty in conjunction with the faculty's research week. honestly, we (me and my friend) were forced by our supervisor. 

There competition was divided to 2 categories that are master category and phd category. For those who did'nt know what 3MT is, its actually a "platform" for researchers to share the importance of their work with public or I should say people who are not specialized in our field. As its name, it need us to summarize our work in the most simple way and present its importance within 3 minutes.

I used to think that this is a very simple task, its like story telling. hehehe.. but hell no when I started with preparation of the text for the speech. There's too many important things to tell people within that very short period. Well, for me its my one year work to summarize in 250 words? And for those who already done with data analysis, it must be more difficult. Oh my goodness. its tough!

So, I browsed through the net looking for tips for this 3MT. Its not that I'm really eager to win his competition but at least I don't want to embarass myself in front of the crowds. ;') So, of course I need to be prepared..Many websites, people suggest dividing the presentation to 3 parts that are why? what? and how? This is what I get from browsing through..

So, when the day came..

After I did my presentation, one chinese girl came to me and asked me how I prepared my text. I laughed. Not because I am over confident with my presentation but because I am not confident at all..(at that time) LOL! I DID'NT FOLLOW A BIT OF THE TEXT I'VE PREPARED!!I'm kind of blurred at that time. So, whatever came out of my mouth that day was unplanned. hehehe.. But then I realized Allah knows whats best for me. If I followed the text that I've prepared, I won't get the 3rd place on the competition..haha..

alhamdulillah..

But after the competition, I guess I need to write here the most important tips for those who are going to participate in 3MT which is to ENGAGE WITH THE CROWDS. I found that all the winners for both category are strong at engaging with their crowds.

Tell people what makes you choose the topic? If possible, relates it to your life experience. So that they can "reach" you. Start the presentation by telling story or situation that is related to your research topic will be a good way.. For example, I started mine by telling them that I chosed mine on child injury because of my toddler who turned 1 at that time love to explore the house and met with lots of nearmisses....Tell them how your research can benefits them. People will be benefited from my study if my method works. They can avoid accidents and injury from happening to their children. Isn't this a benefit? =D

Why the research is important to them.
AVOID presenting too many statistical figures..
NEVER be so methodological. Trying to impress people by your ADVANCED laboratory techniques etc won't make your presentation interesting.
Use pictures of your important point on your slide presentation. The slide is not to make people understand your presentation but to guide your talk. People are not supposed to be attracted to your slide, they are supposed to be attached by your speech.

That's all..The lesson learnt. I am hoping that this entry will be helpful to those who are looking for tips for your 3MT competition. If I managed to get the video of my presentation, I'll put it up here later..

Good luck =)

bukan senang nak senang

salam semua kawan-kawan yang masih sudi jenguk disini..disebabkan i jarang-jarang je update blog skarang ni, i thought dah takde orang baca blog ni lagi.. kalau update pun banyak cerita merapu meraban jer..takde buat entry bermanfaat dah. bukan taknak cuma tak tertulis..again, terima kasih. walaupun bukan ler ribu-ribu readers, it is surprising looking at this stats tadi..hoho..i ingatkan ada lah 4-5 orang yang sudi datang..ramai gak upenyer.. =P

huhu..tak sangka masih ada yang sayang..sob sob..sebab i sekarang ni memang jarang nak berbloghopping.. sekadar baca blog kawan-kawan yang ada kat my bloglist aje..terima kasih lah kepada korang yang sudi datang ye..at least takde lahh i macam syok sendiri kat sini kan..hehehe..tapi kalau takde orang baca pun, i tulis gak rasanya (like the old days when this blog have no followers) hahaha..sebab i suka baca entry2 lama bila i tengah stress. sebab boleh gelakkan diri sendiri..like what the hell lah mende cam ni pun aku tulis kat blog? ^__^

undeniable, the challenge of the phd journey memang sedang memuncak kot i rasa sekarang ni. bahang stress start bulan 4 dah tak de income, turut terasa. panassss!!! yang lebih stressnya bila research project dah pending dekat 3 bulan ni..adoiyyaaiii..this is the challenge when collaborating with people from overseas kot..sebab distance, sebab supervisors2 ku both are orang penting, busy sokmo. kekadang terpikir gak, am i teh only one who stressed over this project? heh. this main project that i'm currently in is not my phd project, but its the main project for the grantt that i got from John Hopkins.

Sepatutnya, kitorang start collect data end of November, so that bulan 6 nanti we can produce a report untuk dapatkan extension grantt. but up to now, not even start to train our enumerators. entah2 enuerators yang register ngan we all few months back pun dah tak nak join. sobsss...sedih lah macam ni. what we are currently waiting for adalah training manual yang direview oleh Dr. Abdul dan jugak translation of the education materials. kisah translator ni pun satu hal gak panjang ceritanya..adoilaaa...astaghfirullah..banyak betul mengeluh nya..but seriusly, ini adalah stress.been waiting for them for almost a month!when they used to tell me that the translation work will be ready within a week.huh!

perkara paling besar when talking about this project adalah duit. Duit grantt masih belum dapat when we actually have got the grantt since June last year(2012).dah 8 bulan kot.. soooo slow. susah nak buat keje bila takde duit nih. i think this is the major reason why we are on hold. maybe sebab my supervisors tahu that duit tu belum dapat lagi, that's why dorang pun tak rushing sangat. but to tell you the truth, i sangat stress sebab i mengharapkan dapat duit tu to cover my expense bila dah takde gaji nanti. but looking at the current situation, i dont know i boleh berharap ke tak. tak tahu lah ape masalahnya. when the money is there, tapi on hold. why???? aigooooo..stress!

pray hard that duit grantt akan release dalam masa terdekat. hopefully paling lewat pun end of March. for me, dia bukan setakat effect kepada i takde pocket money aje, but the delay will jeopardize the chance to extend the grantt for another year. kalau tak dapat extend, means i need to find another source to fund my phd project. kalau no fund, how to run an intervention? and my project adalah jenis yang perlukan big fund!  oh oh oh... please....this ain't an easy work. melalui pengalaman fighting for that grantt before, i rasa macam "mampu ke aku mengharunginya lagi sekali???" if this really happens, it's gonna be a REAL MESS!

serius, takut saya akan give-up halfway. 

Ya Allah kuatkan lah semangat hambamu ini..Tabahkan dan cekalkan hatiku untuk mengharungi dugaan ini. Janganlah Engkau uji aku dengan ujian yang tak mampu aku laluinya.. 

let's write!

blogging from office today ya' all!!

hellooo..

i wonder ada lagi ke orang baca blog ni yang makin sunyi sepi.. i bukan malas nak update sebenarnya..selalu ada jer cerita yang rasa macam nka update tetapi terlalu banyak kekangan. termasuk laa kekangan masa; be it kat opis atau rumah, kekangan anak yang pantang tengok ibu dia ngadap tab atau laptop, kekangan pelbagai apps yang best2 kat handphone. hahaha..

some pics from my instagram. this is my second instagram account pasal yang first tu lupa password.hehehe..so, bila tukar handphone baru dah tak buleh nak sign-in. wakaka..sudi-sudilah kiranya follow i kat instagram : deenaawanis yer..nanti i follow balik. disebabkan instagram ni lah i rasa macam makin tak berapa nak perlu letak gambar kat blog. dulu, my parents and siblings selalu stalk rafique kat sini dan fb, sekarang ni dorang stalk rafique kat instagram saje..

a little update about rafique..lama gila rasanya tak cerita pasal rafique kat sini. he's getting clever and clever and clever these days..vocabs dia memang dah mantap..ada jer words baru yang dia belajar. and he now can arrange words to make sentence. "ibu nak water" "ibu jom shower" "ibu fiqfiq poopoo, jom wash". Dah boleh jadi kawan ibu buat teman berborak sekarang ni..bab panjang akal toksah cerita lahh, ada je idea "naughty" dia.. 

after 2 years staying with his previous babysitter, semalam Rafique now dah dihantar ke BS lain pulak..sebab BS lama dia tu terpaksa quit to take care of her husband yang sakit..since we were given a very short notice, agak gelabah jugak lah i..meroyan jap kat twitter. initially, nak cari nursery. konon-konon nak bagi Rafique kawan dengan rakan sebaya, tapi bila pergi rumah babysitter yang jaga ramai budak (10++), i dont think i can adapt to that. wakakakaka..bukan RAFIQUE tak boleh terima, mak dia yang over. anyway, mama n MIL pun tak setuju hantar Rafique to nursery. so, i selaku anak yang obedient, mesti ikut cakap ibu.

about my phD, i tengah semester break sekarang. yang buat i stress adalah data collection yang sepatutnya bermula December 2012 tak start lagi. pending kat John Hopkins. tak tahu lah apa masalah dengan ethics kat sana, yet people from other side pun sonyap ajo. perhaps busy with Christ and new year holiday kot..harapnya by the end of this month dha bermula lah..stress menunggu. training manual from their side pun i belum dapat lagi, cemane nak train enumerators?? haiiyyaaa...buat keje, berfikir memang stress. tapi stress menunggu adalah lebih lagi level of stress!!

enough for now. nak gi bloghopping lah jap..
bye!

result exam

sepertimana my last entry dated 28 November, I was having the first exam for this phd journey.. 1st semester kan.. I purposely ambil 1 subject je this semester sebab masih belajar part time kan..ngan keje yang tak pernah nak surut, dan tak pernah nak boleh tengok i bahagia dengan my study, maka my result turn out

yeah..poor..i mean FAIL!!! hampagas betul. sama macam master dulu, this time pun MESTI wajib dapat B  baru dikira lulus. and I tersasar few points for that. sebenarnya, takde lah terkejut sangat pun masa i tengok result tu..wakakaa..sedar diri kot study 2,3 hari terakhir..tu pun 2-3 jam je satu round..dah sah2 ada topics yang tak sempat cover. and turn out, 2 topics yang i tak baca tu masuk time exam..malang tak berbau betul.sob..sob..seb baik baru 1st test. tapi nasib baik tak baik pun, next week ada presentation pulak, which carry much bigger percentage for the total marks.. and this really makes me veryyyyyy

STRESS right now!!!!

stress tak tahu nak kira sample size.

stress tak jumpa reference yang sesuai.

stress ngan research papers topik berkaitan yang buat kat Malaysia semua dated in 1990s.

stressssssss!!!

minggu ni lagi2 lah bertambah stress sebab kena ulang alik dari Meru ke Cheras pasal MIL tolong jagakan Rafique sempena BS i pergi holiday time i STRESS.

the only hope for now adalah supaya I dikurniakan panels yang tak banyak songeh on the presentation day Rabu nanti. kalau masih ada orang yang baca blog kusam dan lebam ini, sama2 lah doakan I dapat examiner yang baik hati ey..

kemain lagi selama 4 tahun ni sedap dok mengomen students punya assignment..itu salah, ini salah..ni turn sendiri nak present, tahu pun ketaq lutut!

padannn!!

bye..