Congratulations to the EPFL MT180 finalists!
Finale EPFL du concours MT180 © Alain Herzog / 2024 EPFL
Last Thursday 21 March, the fourteen EPFL doctoral students shortlisted to take part in the EPFL final of the competition "My Thesis in 180 seconds" brilliantly demonstrated their communication skills in front of 500 people at the Forum Rolex. It was also a great opportunity for the public to discover a fine sample of the research being carried out at EPFL and to understand the issues involved.
1st Prize from the Jury
Maria Marcinek, who is keen to see agriculture use fewer inputs, is looking for the best way of delivering fertiliser to plant roots using bacteria as taxis.
2nd Prize from the Jury and Audience Prize
Alexandros Anastasiadis, intrigued by eels able to travel thousands of kilometres without eating, plays with the different parameters of his eel robot and observes vortex swirls to understand how to move as efficiently as possible.
3rd Prize from the Jury
Stella Laperrousaz cooks composite fibres inspired by cheese threads to make them both stretchable and conductive. Such intelligent fibres could be used to read the signals emitted by our body, such as our heart rate or breathing rate.
The fourteen EPFL doctoral students successfully met the challent of presenting their doctoral thesis in 180 seconds to an uninitiated audience in a lively, understandable and passionate way. Congratulations to all of them!
Watch the full video of the final on EPFL MT180 YouTube to find out what a quantum computer is, how maps can lie, what Roman relics have to do with nuclear waste and how everyone can benefit from renovating buildings.
