I ran across an intriguing tweet the other day daring people to present a 3 emoji thesis.
I’ve actually competed in a 3 Minute Thesis (3MTยฎ) competition before. I made it into the 10 ten finalists of Iowa State University’s Graduate College Three-Minute Thesis Competition in November 2017. Distilling my entire thesis into a 3 minute talk with only one static slide was challenging! (Check out the video of the finals below, I’m up at 18:05)
Taking that to the extreme by completely boiling my thesis down to just 3 EMOJIS? No, that’s not possible. My research project is way to complex and interdisciplinary…
But the challenge of it sparked my interest and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would parse down my thesis to its very essence.
What is the very heart of my research?
Well, that one was easy. ย I study stormwater in cities and it’s effect on streams and our water quality, on flooding, and the alteration of the global hydrologic cycle.
Waterย ๐ง
Where is my research focused?
Again, that one was pretty easy because I specifically study urban ecosystems and environments.
Cities ๐ก
But there’s one other crucial component to my research.
That is people. I study the human side of stormwater management in cities. How to encourage participation and engagement in environmental issues. I study how to link the biophysical aspects of urban stormwater management with the sociological aspects.
People ๐ฅ
There you have it, my 3 emoji thesis: ๐งย ๐ก๐.
It is kind of amazing how accurately that little string of emojis actually does summarize my PhD. Of course there is so much more to my thesis than just that (๐ก๐๐๐ณ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ง๐๐บโ๐ช๐ค๐จ๐๐กโโ๐๐จ๐ณโปโ๐ฒ๐จ๐โ๐จ๐๐๐๐ถ๐๐๐ง๐ต๐ฎโ๐๐ข๐ฌโโ๐๐ฑ๐จโจ๐ก๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ) but that’s for anther post ๐