Criminology and criminal justice doctoral student Ellie Lyne wins 3 Minute Thesis competition

Ellie Lyne was stepping out her comfort zone Feb. 7 when she walked to the front of room in the ED Collabitat and delivered a presentation in the annual Three Minute Thesis Competition from the Graduate School at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

The presentation, titled “On The (Zoom) Record: The Role of Video-Conferencing in Detention Hearing Proceedings,” examined the transition many in the legal system made to shift from in-person court hearings to video-conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lyne, a doctoral student in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, examined data gathered by collaborator Luis Torres, a 2022 UMSL PhD graduate and now a postdoctoral fellow at Temple University. Their project assesses 330 pretrial detention cases from a New Jersey courtroom between April 2020 and April 2021, focusing on the prevalence of technical difficulties that arose from video-conferencing as well as any impact that might have had on the outcomes of hearings.

“I’m not the most comfortable with public speaking in that sort of capacity,” Lyne said of participating in the 3MT competition. “It was a really good opportunity for me to, in a very shortened format, practice my public speaking skills and also communicate with a nonacademic audience.”

Competitions like UMSL’s originated at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, in 2008. They are meant to celebrate exciting doctoral research while cultivating academic, presentation and research communication skills. Competitors are tasked with distilling their work and sharing it in a language appropriate to a nonspecialist audience.

The popularity of 3MT competitions has grown beyond Australia and New Zealand, and they now take place in over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.

UMSL’s competition follows the founding organization’s guidelines with a few local modifications.

Lyne wound up besting a field of 11 other competitors to claim first place in this year’s competition. She won a prize of $300 and also received an additional $50 for winning the People’s Choice Award.

“It was a unique opportunity for me to sit down and try and communicate the importance of these findings,” Lyne said. “That’s where I see the most value in research: being able to share it in a way that can influence policy.”

Her research continues to be relevant because the practice of using video-conferencing in court proceedings did not end with the pandemic. Many jurisdictions have continued making use of it in some cases even as many hearings have returned to being held in person.

Lyne also appreciated getting to hear from students presenting their research in other academic disciplines.

Biology doctoral students George Todd and Danish Gul finished second and third, respectively, in the competition. Todd, who won the $200 second-place prize, gave a presentation on pollinator behavior at urban orchards in St. Louis. Gul, who won a $100 third-place prize, gave a presentation titled “Microbial Hunger Games: Is coexistence a key to surviving competition?”

Lyne will represent UMSL in the Midwestern Association of Graduate School 3MT competition on April 5 during the MAGS annual meeting at Le Méridien St. Louis in Clayton, Missouri.