As part of M.U.S.T.’s 23rd Anniversary celebrations, the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management (FHTM) held the second “Three Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®)” on April 26th, 2023. This was an individual competition that was sponsored by MGM. It attracted 58 graduate students to participate in the preliminaries and 23 of them reached the final. It was an honor to have Mr. Francis Tan, MGM Vice President of Learning & Talent Management, Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM, and Assistant Professors of FHTM Dr. Vincent Cheng and Dr. Amr Al-Ansi, as judges for this competition. More than 100 Faculty members and students attended.
Group photo
Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM welcomed Mr. Francis Tan and MGM representatives and presented the certificate of appreciation to Mr. Francis Tan for their support to the competition. Prof. Goh expressed that 3MT® is one of the most popular competitions in the world. The idea behind it is to increase researchers’ communication skills in academic subjects and presentations, capacities needed to effectively explain a research topic in three minutes and in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.
Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM Delivered a Speech
Prof. Ben K. Goh, Dean of FHTM Presents the Award to the Guest
In the competition, each contestant was given three minutes to make an academic presentation. Judges scored the candidates based on their performance. The audience also voted for their favorite contestant. In the end, there were two champions of the competition, and they were Liu Sifan and Liang Lu. Wu Wenqi was awarded the second runner-up. Zhang Xiaojing was the winner of the Best Presentation Award, Chen Haoran was the winner of the Best Topic Award, and Ye Zhiqiu was the winner of the People’s Choice Award which was voted by the audience.
Group Photo of the Winners
After the competition, the four judges commented on the performance of the contestants and wished the students would continue to work hard and try their best. Prof. Goh hoped more students would participate in future competitions. The contestants also said that it was a good opportunity for them to showcase themselves and gain experience. By listening to other contestants’ presentations, they could also expand their research horizons, improve their presentation skills, and learn from each other.
Presentation by Contestant
Since the signing of Tourism+ Talent Development Partnership MOU between the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management of Macau University of Science and Technology and MGM in December 2021, several visits, seminars, and competitions have been successfully held. The students visited MGM to learn about room management, restaurant, and kitchen operations. Earlier this month, Ms. Icy Lei, Executive Director of Digital Product Strategy & Data Science of MGM, was invited as the guest speaker and provided an insightful talk. Students will be able to learn more about hotel operations through site visits. In the future, FHTM and MGM will jointly organize more seminars and activities to bring more learning and practice opportunities to students.
