Dimitrios Terzis is a finalist in “My thesis in 180 seconds”

On October 26th 2015, EPFL organized its first edition of «My thesis in 180 seconds» competition. This competition is inspired by “Three Minute Thesis (3MT®),” which originally took place in 2008 at the University of Queensland, Australia and since then is spreading around the world. The goal for PhD students is to present their research in simple, straightforward terms in 3 minutes before a large audience of non-experts and a jury composed of professors and journalists. It’s all about popularizing their doctoral thesis and explaining it in a clear, concise and compelling yet funny manner – all with the support of a single slide!
Dimitrios Terzis, PhD student in the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, was among the 14 finalists for this first ever EPFL edition of the competition. During his 180 seconds presentation, he used the analogy of the scenario of a superhero comic to explain how a natural mechanism found in certain soil bacteria results into stronger, more resistant soils. His 3-word summary of his thesis was “Understanding, Testing & Predicting” which stands for the main goals of his thesis: (i) the characterization of the fabric of bio-improved soils, (ii) the experimental testing of their mechanical response and (iii) the development of a theoretical model to capture their overall performance.
This competition was a chance for EPFL to celebrate and communicate the diversity of its research activities. We would like to congratulate our colleague Dimitrios for delivering such a clear and entertaining talk in the final of the competition. You can check his performance below in the link. We would also like to congratulate the organizing team for this wonderful result that gave EPFL doctoral students the chance to create new ideas and leave for a while their laboratory tables, as well as all the participants for their high-level performances.