Paola Zanella

Paola Zanella, a doctoral student in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, has been selected as the winner of Georgia Tech's 2019 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Her winning talk, "Mitigation of Helicopter Accidents Related to Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness" focused on the research she will be proposing for her doctoral thesis. 

Zanella and all of the finalists for the 2019 competition presented their work on November 14 at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.

Joining her in the final round was fellow AE doctoral student, Darshan Sarojini, who presented "Analysis and Optimization of Complex 3D Structures Through Dimensional Reduction to 1-D Models." Both Sarjini and Zanella are advised by Regents Professor Dimitri Mavris.

“We are very proud of Paola,” said Mavris. “She is an excellent student and the way she effectively synthesized and communicated her work during the 3MT competition exemplifies this.”

As the overall winner of the 2019 competition, Zanella will receive a $2,000 travel grant.

Inaugurated in Queensland, Australia, the 3MT competition challenges graduate students to present their research in a simplified and abbreviated fashion that can be quickly grasped by non-experts. To be competitive, candidates must have a well-conceived dissertation project, compelling data, and a novel story to share. The first year it came to Georgia Tech, the 3MT was won by AE doctoral student Jonathan Walker for his presentation, "Leaving Ancient Rocket Engines Behind."