PhD Yoni Schirris wins pitch competition

20-09-2021

Yoni Schirris, PhD candidate at Netherlands Cancer Institute and the UvA Informatics Institute, has won the first edition of the UvA 3MT pitch competition. He will represent the UvA in the international finals in early October. Want to support him? As of September 20, you can vote for him to win the People's Choice Award.

3MT stands for "Three Minute Thesis". It is a pitch competition that was originally started at the University of Queensland, but has blossomed into an international competition with representatives of 900 universities from 85 countries all competing against each other. The pitches revolve around explaining your PhD research to a lay audience in a video of no more than three minutes.
This year, the University of Amsterdam has joined the competition for the first time. In the past few months, researchers from five different UvA faculties were given the opportunity to sign up. All candidates received training and coaching to try and produce the best video.

AI and immunotherapy

Last week the pre-selected three best candidates from each UvA faculty competed against each other. Yoni Schirris was the overall winner with his pitch on AI and cancer histopathology (see video). He is working on an AI application that can determine which cancer patients may benefit from immunotherapy based on standard microscopic images of their tumors. Schirris has received an award of 1000 Euro and gets to record a new pitch to represent the UvA in the international competition.

Yoni will represent the UvA in the international finals in early October. Want to support him? As of September 20, you can vote for him to win the People's Choice Award.

Learn more:

Find Yoni’s video pitch here
Jonas Teuwen group, where Yoni works
News item about the competition on UvA’s website

PhD Yoni Schirris wins pitch competition

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