REES MSc student Alfred Appiah earned himself a trip to the finals of the U of A 3-Minute Thesis competition after winning one of the five semi-finals last week.
The competition challenges students to explain their thesis using plain language, in three minutes or less, while being judged on communication style, comprehension and engagement.
Appiah's thesis focuses on ensuring future water reliability in Alberta. He uses the case study of Denver, CO, where the municipal water supply was at risk due to deforestation.
The City of Denver teamed up with the US Forest Service to create a program to fund reforestation. A fee is added to municipal water bills in Denver to cover program costs. The program costs each household $27 per year, over five years. Appiah is investigating the viability of a similar program in Alberta, while determining how much households are willing to pay yearly to support the program.
His research is still underway, although survey results suggest Albertans are willing to pay $71 per household per year for a similar program.
"Water utility providers can use these estimates to construct more efficient water management and pricing schemes, in their bid to improve water reliability throughout the province" he said.
Appiah's win marks the first time a graduate student from the Faculty of ALES is advancing to the campus-wide finals. The first 3MT competition took place at the University of Queensland in 2008, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research hosted the first U of A event last year.
Appiah competed against eight other graduate students in his semi-final round, from departments including Education, Physiology Computing Science and Human Ecology.
The finals will take place at 5:30 p.m. on April 13 at Convocation Hall. Appiah will compete against four other students for the top prize of $1,000 and a ticket to compete at the Western Canadian finals taking place at UBC on April 29th.
The competition challenges students to explain their thesis using plain language, in three minutes or less, while being judged on communication style, comprehension and engagement.
Appiah's thesis focuses on ensuring future water reliability in Alberta. He uses the case study of Denver, CO, where the municipal water supply was at risk due to deforestation.
The City of Denver teamed up with the US Forest Service to create a program to fund reforestation. A fee is added to municipal water bills in Denver to cover program costs. The program costs each household $27 per year, over five years. Appiah is investigating the viability of a similar program in Alberta, while determining how much households are willing to pay yearly to support the program.
His research is still underway, although survey results suggest Albertans are willing to pay $71 per household per year for a similar program.
"Water utility providers can use these estimates to construct more efficient water management and pricing schemes, in their bid to improve water reliability throughout the province" he said.
Appiah's win marks the first time a graduate student from the Faculty of ALES is advancing to the campus-wide finals. The first 3MT competition took place at the University of Queensland in 2008, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research hosted the first U of A event last year.
Appiah competed against eight other graduate students in his semi-final round, from departments including Education, Physiology Computing Science and Human Ecology.
The finals will take place at 5:30 p.m. on April 13 at Convocation Hall. Appiah will compete against four other students for the top prize of $1,000 and a ticket to compete at the Western Canadian finals taking place at UBC on April 29th.