Sayed Wins Grand Prize at NCRT Competition

Islam Sayed, a Ph.D. student studying under Dr. Salah Bedair received the Overall Grand Prize Award, granted at the North Carolina Triangle Student Research Competition. The event is held annually and is organized by the Materials Research Society and Electrochemical Society Student Chapters of NC State, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This year’s event was held October 4th at The Frontier co-working space at Research Triangle Park (RTP).

During the competition, 61 presenters showed their research in five categories covering different aspects of materials science, physical electronics, and electrochemistry.

An award was granted for the best presenter of each category, and in addition an overall grand prize award was presented to the best presenter at the event, and he was honored to receive this prestigious award from amongst the other 60 competitors. Posters were judged by professors from UNC:CH, Duke, and NC State, in addition to representatives from Eastman.

Sayed was also selected as a finalist in the 2017 Three Minute Thesis Competition, where he represented the ECE Department while presenting on his research to a non-technical audience. That competition was held on October 31st at Hunt Library, to an audience of students, faculty, and the public, and judged by a panel of experts.

The 3MT competition was started in 2008 at the University of Queensland, Australia, and has since spread to at least 170 universities in 17 countries around the world. The challenge of 3MT is to encourage Ph.D. students to hone their science communication skills by learning to present a compelling oration on their thesis topic and its significance.

Contestants are judged on comprehension and content, as well as engagement and communication.