U of A hosts first-ever virtual Western Canadian Regional competition

On September 23, 2020, the University of Alberta hosted the first-ever virtual Western Canadian Regional competition. Among the 16 finalists from across the province was Dennis Riley Louie, winner of the 2020 UBC 3MT competition and doctoral student in Rehabilitation Sciences, in the Faculty of Medicine.

Dennis presented his research on the integration of powered robotic exoskeletons into stroke clinical rehabilitation. According to him, by determining the effectiveness and perspectives of an exoskeleton-based gait rehabilitation program, we’ll have a better understanding of how commercially-available robotics can impact the stroke rehabilitation process.

The winner of this year’s Western Regional Finals 2020 was Elana Varner, from Simon Fraser University. Martha Ruiz from the University of Alberta was the runner-up at the competition, and Shelby Bennett from Trinity Western University received an honourable mention.

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition was developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, and has been held annually at UBC since 2011. The competition challenges higher-degree research students to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance in just three minutes in language appropriate to a general audience. 3MT is not an exercise in trivializing or ‘dumbing-down’ research but forces students to consolidate their ideas and crystallize their research discoveries.