Lola Ben-Alon’s research deals with the challenges of using earthen building materials, which offer sustainable alternatives to conventional materials used in construction. Image: Carnegie Mellon University
SoA PhD student Lola Ben-Alon will compete in CMU’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. This is the second year in a row that Lola has made it to the 3MT Championship.
Eight doctoral students, each of whom have won a preliminary round of competition, will explain years of research to a non-expert audience in under three minutes during the finals of Carnegie Mellon University's 3MT championship round. The event begins at 4:30pm on Tuesday 26 March in the College of Fine Arts' Kresge Theatre; doors open at 3:45pm.
Ben-Alon's research deals with the challenges of using earthen building materials, which offer sustainable alternatives to conventional materials used in construction. The environmental and policy measures she is working on are intended to help policymakers include earthen materials in mainstream construction projects, resulting in broader adoption development of a healthy, low impact, built environment.
"I want people to be curious in regard to alternative, more sustainable, materials and methods our built environment can be comprised from," Ben-Alon said. "I love my field of research and enjoy every single day of my doctoral degree. In this sense, I hope my enthusiasm will inspire other graduate students to pursue research in the direction that excites them most."
The event, in its sixth year at Carnegie Mellon, started at the University of Queensland in 2008 and has been adopted by hundreds of institutions. The Three Minute Thesis Championship is open to the public. A panel of judges, including last year's second place winner, Navid Kazem, will select the first-, second- and third-place winners.
Additionally, there are two audience-based awards: the People’s Choice Award is a vote taken of the in-house audience, and the Alumni Award. The 3MT Championship is livestreamed from CMU’s main Facebook page, as well as the pages for the University Libraries and every college. Alumni can watch the competition on the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Association Facebook page, where they can participate in the voting to select the Alumni Award winner.