U21 3MT Winner 2020

U21 Global 3MT winner 2020 announced

U21 is delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s U21 3MT® competition is Ciaran McGeady from the University of Glasgow with his presentation ‘Listening to Butterflies with Brainwaves’.

 

Ciaran’s three-minute presentation is focused on the development of brain-computer interfaces, a novel communication technology that uses brain activity recorded from electrodes to control computers and devices. His research is showing great promise for neurorehabilitation following stroke or spinal cord injury. Ciaran is developing signal processing and machine learning techniques to improve the detection of imagined arm movements in patients, restoring their control of their environment.

 

Associate Professor Caroline Daley, previous Chair of the U21 Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies who oversee the competition commented: ‘The 3MT is one of U21’s flagship events for good reason. Each year the calibre of the finalists stuns the judges. Ciaran McGeady was the clear winner this year. His opening story about the journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered ‘locked-in syndrome’ after suffering a stroke, drew the viewers into his research on using brain waves to assist those who are paralysed.’ 

 

The 3MT® competition, founded by the University of Queensland, is taken to a global level with U21. PhD students, having already been chosen as the 3MT® winner in their own University, are pitted against other winners from across the U21 network, to find an overall and a people’s choice winner.