UC3M holds the Thesis Talk 2026 final
Doctoral research, in 4 minutes
6/11/26
The Graduate School of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has held the final session of Thesis Talk 2026, a competition in which doctoral candidates present their research projects to a non-specialist audience in a maximum of four minutes. This event, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary at the University under the slogan "10 years giving voice to research", tests participants’ communication, outreach and synthesis skills.
Photograph of the three winners. From left to right, Isabel García Sánchez-Mayoral, Olena Velyt Vepryk and Ester Martínez Sanzo.
The final session, which took place yesterday, 10 June, in the Aula Magna on the Getafe campus, featured 15 participants. During the event, research projects were presented in areas such as materials science and engineering; law; statistics for data science; advanced studies in human rights; computer science; humanities; aerospace engineering; electrical, electronic and automation engineering; media research; and signal processing and communications engineering, among others.
In this edition, the three best presentations were: "Bacteria: Access Denied", by Olena Velyt Vepryk, from the PhD Programme in Materials Science and Engineering; "You're an Adult Now", by Isabel García Sánchez-Mayoral, from the PhD Programme in Advanced Studies in Human Rights; and "The Challenge of Artificial Intelligence Through the Media", by Ester Martínez Sanzo, from the PhD Programme in Media Research.
The jury assessed the quality and clarity of these presentations and awarded them prizes of €900, €600 and €300 (first, second and third prize, respectively). Once again, the competition provided an overview of the research being carried out by UC3M doctoral candidates, as well as the advances made by the University’s early-career researchers.
Thesis Talk is an initiative organised by the UC3M Graduate School in which participants must deliver a presentation explaining the what, how and why of their doctoral research to a non-specialist audience in just four minutes, in Spanish or English, with no support other than a single slide or transparency. The jury, composed of UC3M faculty members, evaluates the overall presentation of the topic and participants’ communication and outreach skills, including organisation and clarity, quality of language, and ability to engage the audience’s attention.
This presentation format is inspired by Three Minute Thesis (3MT), an activity created in 2008 by The University of Queensland (Australia) and replicated by more than two hundred universities worldwide. Through this initiative, the Graduate School highlights the importance of the research projects carried out within its doctoral programmes and promotes their dissemination through a format and language adapted to non-specialist audiences.
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