For a fifth straight year a group of graduate students from Montana State University will give the public a chance to hear their 80,000-word thesis projects presented in only 180 seconds each.

MSU's Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering will host the Three-Minute Thesis event on Thursday, Feb. 28, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Procrastinator Theater in the Strand Union Building.

The seven finalists chosen for the 3-Minute Thesis competition at MSU come from disciplines across the engineering college. They will try to explain, very concisely, how their research affects the average person. Contestants condense their research into a brief, engaging presentation for a non-specialist audience, using only a single presentation slide as a visual aid.

This year's finalists are:

• Matt Skuntz, “The Driving Force of Nature”
• Arda Aykel, “Ensuring Storage of CO₂ in the Subsurface to Save the Planet”
• Reha Abbasi, “3D Printing of Bacteria for Better Future”
• Greg Hess, "Analysis and Implementation: Converging Intent-based Production and High-speed Research Networks”
• Matt Bell, “Modeling Risk of Wildlife-vehicle Collisions”
• Humberto Sanchez, “Drop-based Microfluidics: Studying Viral Evolution at the Single Cell Level”
• Schamali Jayartne, “Studying Fluids to Improve the Consumer Experience”

Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland in Australia. For more information, visit www.threeminutethesis.org.