3MT Winner Spotlight| Venkata Krishna Kandalai, M.S.'26

My name is Venkata Krishna Kandalai. I’m a health informatics master’s program graduate from Hood College and currently a postgraduate intern at AI CoLab, the MedStar-Georgetown Collaborative Center for AI in Healthcare. For my capstone, I built a project called FHIR Cracker, a tool that takes unstructured clinical text, like the kind doctors write in discharge summaries, and automatically converts it into a standardized format that health systems can actually use. The 3MT was my chance to tell that story in three minutes.

Healthcare generates enormous amounts of written notes—doctor observations, patient histories, discharge instructions—and most of it just sits there, unorganized and hard to use. It struck me as a huge missed opportunity. If we can turn that raw text into structured, usable data, it unlocks so much: better care coordination, smarter clinical research and more personalized treatment. I kept thinking that if the information is already there, we just need the right tools to unlock it. That became FHIR Cracker. Beyond the technical problem, I was motivated by the real-world stakes. This kind of work can directly improve how patients are cared for, and that matters a lot to me.

I had to think in terms of a general audience member who would be present at the event, not someone interested in the detailed tech stack I worked with. I removed all the jargon and complex concepts that might pull people away from the big picture problem I was trying to solve. It was a big trial and error process to nail the right level of complexity in under three minutes. I typed out the full talk and read it aloud over and over to catch places where it felt clunky or rushed. I also watched past 3MT winners to understand the rhythm. The practice session with Dean April Boulton was genuinely transformative. I walked in with one slide and walked out knowing I needed a completely different one. That feedback changed everything.

It still feels surreal. The People’s Choice is voted on by the audience, so it is not a panel of judges scoring your methodology, but real people saying your work resonated with them. That felt incredibly meaningful, because accessibility was something I worked really hard on. I wanted someone with no healthcare or tech background to walk away genuinely understanding why this problem matters. Winning that award told me the message landed. And having people I care about in the room celebrating with me made it even better. 

Try as much as you can to focus on the big picture of your project rather than worrying about which small details to cram into three minutes. Think like an audience member to gauge how technical or plain your language sounds. I practiced by explaining my project to family and friends, which helped me stay within the time limit while making sure a non-technical person could understand what I was trying to achieve. Lastly, attend the practice session. It was very helpful, and Dean Boulton knows exactly what you can improve on your slide and will give you some well-deserved confidence going in.

Inspired by Venkata's story? Ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn more about Hood College’s graduate programs, including the master's in health informatics.