Waku Ken-Opurum, 2024 Finalist
Carnegie Mellon University’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition pits doctoral students against the clock and each other to explain complex research and captivate their audience in just three minutes. Each year, 10 Ph.D. students from schools and colleges across CMU compete to gain early career recognition, connect with the campus community, and win prizes of up to $3,000.
We asked College of Fine Arts student Waku Ken-Opurum, a finalist from the 2024 3MT Championship, a few questions about her experience and how it shaped her journey.
Q: Share a bit about your area of study/research at CMU. What did you focus on for your 3MT presentation?
A: I am a Ph.D. candidate in Carnegie Mellon’s Architecture-Engineering-Construction Management program, exploring the intersection of air quality science, building performance, participatory design, Indigenous knowledge, and art. My dissertation introduces a framework called environmental griotship — a transdisciplinary approach that combines low-cost sensing, community insights, and storytelling to combat what I term “data apartheid” in the Niger Delta, where communities have suffered severe pollution for decades but lack reliable, accessible air quality data.
I argue that air pollution in the Niger Delta is not merely a technical issue but also a social, political, and architectural challenge, influenced by years of fossil fuel extraction, infrastructural neglect, and colonial disruption of climate-adapted building traditions. These problems are worsened by polluting survival strategies that communities adopt to endure within a dysfunctional society. To measure the impact on residents and architecture and understand behavioral patterns for future interventions, my core research involves deploying wearable, affordable sensors with community “griots,” combining this data with embodied observations and oral histories from residents and buildings, and translating findings into artistic, immersive forms that make pollution visible, memorable, and actionable.
In my 3MT presentation titled “Visualising the Breath of a Region,” I highlighted that while air pollution is a global issue, awareness remains low — especially in areas with linguistic, educational, and technological challenges. I explained how I design and deploy low-cost air quality sensors with communities to gather real-time data on pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, and VOCs. I then transform this data into artistic visualizations, including installations, sculptures, and immersive experiences, to make the invisible visible and emotionally impactful. I aimed to help the audience imagine the dangers of air pollution in distant places by comparing it to recent severe pollution events in Pittsburgh. I also shared an anecdote from a conversation with my dad to evoke a visceral response and underscore the importance and timeliness of this research. My goal was to present my work in a way that remains accessible and engaging to diverse audiences, avoiding overly technical language.
Q: How did preparing for 3MT assist you with the rest of your Ph.D. program, including completing your dissertation?
A: Preparing for 3MT helped me clarify my dissertation’s main focus: co-producing credible environmental data with communities rather than about them. The three-minute constraint pushed me to identify the core of my research — its intellectual and ethical foundations — even as my ideas were still developing. During this process, I articulated the concept of environmental griotship, illustrating how low-cost sensors, participatory workshops, and storytelling can work together to foster trust in data and improve environmental literacy in low-resource settings.
Condensing this multifaceted project into a clear narrative allowed me to better understand the link between technology, community knowledge, and art across my dissertation's three “Acts”: Breathing Devices, Breathing Together, and Breathing Stories. It helped me realize that combining technical rigor (sensor validation, data quality) with cultural relevance (sense-making workshops, storytelling) is essential for producing meaningful, actionable data for communities. This insight has influenced how I organize my chapters, formulate research questions, and choose my methods.
Overall, the 3MT experience confirmed that storytelling, accessibility, and emotional engagement are integral to my dissertation, not just supplementary. It also improved my communication skills, which are crucial for fieldwork, as I frequently explain my research to community members, local partners, and students. I learned that my work should generate scientifically valid data and create experiences that help people perceive air pollution differently. This understanding guides how I design workshops, develop visualizations, and consider the broader impact of my research beyond academia.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the competition? What was your favorite part?
A: My main challenge was condensing a project that includes sensors, data collection, community insights, and artistic practice into only three minutes without losing its nuance. Deciding whether to emphasize technical details or human impact, while maintaining audience engagement and adhering to a script, was particularly challenging.
However, my favorite part was watching how audiences emotionally connected with the concept of “breathing in the margins.” When I mentioned the Pittsburgh wildfire smoke day alongside my father’s account of a constant “carbon cloud” over Port Harcourt, the audience quickly understood the significance. It confirmed my belief that art and storytelling serve as powerful links between data and personal experience.
Q: What are you working on today?
A: I am nearing the end of my Ph.D. and currently applying my three-act research design in the Niger Delta while preparing for my defense in a few months. I am finalizing the calibration and validation of low-cost wearable air quality sensors through laboratory tests and field tests alongside reference instruments. Additionally, I am training community “griots” to carry these devices along co-designed routes across Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta states. Using sense-making workshops, we combine sensor data with embodied observations, spatial journaling, and oral histories to create hybrid datasets that are both scientifically credible and culturally grounded.
Listening to how locals describe indoor air, ventilation, and everyday coping strategies has influenced my understanding of what feasible, acceptable, and effective air-quality interventions look like in real homes. Alongside my dissertation, I founded CLAIR (Clean Air Innovation for Resilience), a startup that emerged directly from this research. I observed how energy burden, unreliable electricity, dependence on diesel and petrol generators, and limited access to mechanical ventilation worsen indoor air pollution, especially in high-pollution, resource-limited settings. CLAIR is developing biodegradable, passive window air filters to reduce indoor exposure without requiring continuous power, high maintenance, or costly HVAC systems. These filters are designed to be affordable, locally adaptable, and suited to housing conditions in places like the Niger Delta, with potential applications in other polluted or wildfire-prone regions. My dissertation and CLAIR now inform each other: data guides the assessment of indoor air quality needs, and CLAIR offers a concrete pathway from insights to practical solutions. Today, I am working on a prototype with support from the 2025 Wilton E. Scott Institute Entrepreneurship Award.
Q: What advice would you give to students considering 3MT this year?
A: Identify the core issue your dissertation tackles and why it is relevant to real people, not just your field. Use tangible examples and storytelling to connect your work to lived experiences, as I did with wildfire smoke in Pittsburgh and pollution in Port Harcourt. Practice presenting to audiences beyond your discipline, and consider how your research might be communicated visually, narratively, or spatially. Ultimately, remember that clarity, engagement, and emotional impact are equally vital as technical accuracy.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about how your experience has impacted you?
A: Competing in 3MT had a more profound personal impact on me than I initially expected. During the preliminary round, my anxiety overwhelmed me, causing me to forget some lines. At that moment and afterwards, I felt devastated and embarrassed, convinced I lost my chance to advance. However, when I later found out that the judges still chose me as a finalist, I was truly moved. Their decision confirmed not only the value of my research but also their confidence in my potential as a communicator and scholar, for which I am very grateful.
This experience changed my mindset. I stopped viewing my anxiety as a failure and instead saw it as something to prepare for and manage. I practiced more intentionally, improved my delivery, and actively worked to calm my nerves before the final round, which was held in a larger auditorium with a live audience and livestream viewers. Standing on that stage and delivering my presentation felt like a personal win.
Overall, 3MT taught me resilience, self-compassion, and determination – traits that now influence my academic, professional, and entrepreneurial pursuits. It reminded me that setbacks do not determine my path and that perseverance, preparation, and confidence in my work can help me overcome difficult times.