Fifth Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition

Professor, A. B. Freeman School of Business
Peoples Choice Award Winner, UB's First Annual 3MT Competition

Saeede Eftekhari earned her PhD in management science and systems from the State University of New York at Buffalo in July 2019. She holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the Isfahan University of Technology in Iran. Eftekhari’s research focuses on healthcare network analytics and healthcare information technology, using methodological techniques, including econometric modeling, social networks analysis, and data mining to analyze healthcare management problems and develop cost-effective solutions. She has published her research in ACM transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS) journal. Eftekhari has been presenting her work at annual management conferences, including the Conference on Information Systems and Technology. She is currently an assistant professor in A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University.

Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology
First Place Winner, UB's Second Annual 3MT Competition

Philip Odonkor is an assistant professor at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. His research combines energy use data, with artificial intelligence, to diagnose and understand the diverse relationships people have with energy, and to leverage this insight to automate and optimize building energy use. Following his graduation from UB, and prior to joining Stevens, Odonkor interned with Hitachi Big Data Labs where he worked on real-world applications of artificial intelligence. Outside of academia and research, Odonkor served as a TEDxBuffalo speaker, where he presented a talk titled “Teaching Dumb Homes New Tricks”.

Scientist, NJ Biopharmaceuticals LLC
Second Place Winner, UB's Third Annual 3MT Competition

Following his participation in the 2019 3MT event, Plakas graduated in spring 2019 with his PhD in medicinal chemistry where he studied small molecule synthesis of heterocyclic dye molecules. In fall 2019, he started as a visiting assistant professor at St. Bonaventure University in Western New York. After one full academic year of teaching, Plakas moved to Philadelphia to pursue his dream of being a scientist in the biotech industry. Currently he is a scientist with NJ Biopharmaceuticals LLC, a contract-research organization based out of Bristol, PA. Here, he contributes to the design and synthesis of novel payloads for use in antibody-drug conjugates. In his spare time, Plakas is a referee for youth ice hockey and enjoys training for various marathons.

Assistant Professor, Forman Christian College
Second Place Winner, UB's Second Annual 3MT Competition

Naila Sahar did her PhD as a Fulbright scholar at the University at Buffalo, in the Department of English. The topic of her PhD dissertation is Reimagining Muslim Women: Gendered Religious Life and Resistance in the Age of Islamophobia. Her research interests include feminist studies, gender studies, gendered religious nationalism, South Asian studies and postcolonial studies. Her work has appeared in South Asian Voices, South Asian Review, and Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies. These days she is working as Assistant Professor in the English department at Forman Christian College, (A Chartered University), Lahore.