On April 15, 2026, four doctoral students took home awards at The University of Texas at Austin's Empower Your Research Pitch competition. Three award winners were chosen by judges and will receive $1,000 while the Community Choice Award winner was selected by the audience and will receive $500.
Empower Your Pitch Winners
| Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. candidate Alice Zhang won the Outstanding Public Impact Engagement Award with the presentation, “The Next Vital Sign: Quantifying Social Connection with Wearables.” | ||
| Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. student Subhashini Sugumar won the Overall Excellence in Research Communication Award with the presentation, “Reading a Battery's Mind.” | ||
| Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate Kat Motovilov won the Outstanding Creativity Award with the presentation, “Should You Trust Your Gut?: The Decision to Drink.” | ||
| Rhetoric and Writing Ph.D. student Kirill Veselkin won the Community Choice Award for Excellence with the presentation, “We Imagine the Bomb So It Can Explode.” |
This year's Empower Your Research Pitch consisted of three rounds of competition, with the first round including a dedicated panel of coaches to provide feedback to all contestants, helping to fine-tune pitches for subsequent rounds. After receiving and incorporating feedback, participants presented to Empower Your Research Pitch judges for a second time in the elimination round. Twelve standout graduate students were chosen in the second round as competition finalists, advancing to a thrilling final round and celebration.
The five finalist judges included Sarah Ades, Dean of the Graduate School and Senior Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Conor Cunningham, Vice President of Engineering at Microsoft, Archie Holmes, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at The University of Texas System, MacGregor Stephenson, Chief Deputy Chief Information Officer at Texas Health and Human Services and Matthew Watkins, Editor in Chief at Texas Tribune.
Along with the Empower Your Research Pitch finale, the Office of Career and Life Design held a poster session to showcase the work graduate students do through the Graduate Archer Fellowship Program, The CONNECT Program, PhD Pathways and Reimagining Professional Development.
In collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, “Empower Your Pitch” is an invigorating redesign of the 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) format. This engaging and dynamic competition and skill-development series is designed to equip participants with the strategies needed to effectively communicate complex ideas in just three minutes. The Graduate School Office of Career and Life Design hosted several information sessions and offered resources throughout the competition to help students practice and refine their presentations. The annual competition is open to UT graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
This campus-wide research communication competition is co-sponsored by The Graduate School Office of Career and Life Design and the Graduate Coordinators Network.