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The 2025 Three Minute Thesis final competition will be held Feb. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m.

What is the best way to distill a multitude of information into just three minutes?

That’s the question eleven graduate students will be wrestling with as part of the Graduate School’s eighth annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which will be held in the University Memorial Center’s Glenn Miller Ballroom on Feb. 13, 2025, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, but .

This event challenges students to explain their thesis to the general public. They are then evaluated by a panel of judges from across the university and local community, including Waleed Abdalati, executive director of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and professor of geography; Jared Bahir Browsh, director of critical sports studies and an assistant teaching professor; Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion; and Aaron Brockett, City of �鶹ӰԺ mayor.

In the days leading up to the event, we’ll feature each of the competitors. Today’s is Aoife Henry, a doctoral candidate in electrical, computer and energy engineering, specializing in forecast-enabled wind farm control. Her 3MT presentation’s title is, “Directing Turbine with Foresight: The Shepard and the Sheepdog find a Crystal Ball.”

If you had to describe your research in one sentence, what would you say?

Directing turbines in a wind farm in a way that is adaptable to unpredictable and varying wind conditions and can produce the most overall wind farm power, as well as satisfying other objectives e.g. reducing damage, cooperating with the grid, coordinating with energy storage systems such as batteries etc.

What led you to pursue your doctoral degree in your field of study?

A series of happy accidents—completed my Master's thesis at CU �鶹ӰԺ in the pre-vaccine pandemic days as part of the Colorado-Europe Exchange program, my thesis supervisor convinced me to come back for graduate school, and my current supervisor, Lucy, happened to have an opening for me. I'd wanted to work for NREL for sometime and live somewhere amenable to running, so I had my eye on �鶹ӰԺ for a while.

What is your favorite thing about the research you do?

I love coding and I love working with brilliant people at NREL and beyond who are enthusiastic to share their wisdom and practice their skills for the greater good.

What did you do before coming to CU �鶹ӰԺ for graduate school?

A lot of biking and studying in Zurich.

What are your hobbies/what do you enjoy doing outside of your academic work?

I run most days and now and again I do standup comedy.

Tell us a random fact about yourself

I speak the barely alive language of Irish Gaelic, because my Dad has always been an enthusiast and spoke it to us growing up. When I was a child, I also spoke the virtually dead language of Scots Gaelic, because the same father put us in Gaelic-speaking schools where we grew up in Edinburgh. The benefit of this is that I can safely speak in private to my father and a select few friends in any public setting.