Marcus Butler
6 September 2016: A group of postgraduate students have put their speaking skills to the test in front of an audience of more than 100 people at the University of Canberra's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) final.
Each of the 16 competitors presented about their own research, covering diverse topics from national security, sport recovery, food safety, asthma and even identifying bacteria, with a strict 180 second time limit
The 2016 winner announced by the judging panel was Gregory Mowle, who delivered a thought-provoking and humourous presentation titled What can Charles Dickens teach us about financial literacy?.
In less time than it takes to boil an egg, Mr Mowle had the audience laughing along as he described how Australians aren't necessarily good at following basic financial advice, and he obviously won some fans on the judging panel as well.
First prize was $2,000 in research funding to assist Mr Mowle towards his PhD.
Competitors turned what would normally fill an 80,000 word thesis and take more than nine hours to present into just 400 words or so, and delivered it in an engaging way for a crowd of non-experts.
Of course among the audience there were plenty of other researchers, including Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Frances Shannon, while Director of the Institute for Applied Ecology Professor Ross Thompson turned showman for the evening as MC.
Professor Shannon said that it was critical for young researchers to develop good communication skills in parallel with the development of their research skills.
"For up-and-coming researchers being able to present and discuss their work with the community and business is just as important as being able to talk about it with experts and colleagues," Professor Shannon said.
"In the future, these researchers will find that people with the capacity to award grants and funding are not experts in their field. So to be able to capture their attention, stimulate their imagination and maybe loosen a purse-string or two will be very important."
Mr Mowle, as the University of Canberra winner will go on to compete at the Asia-Pacific final on 30 September at the University of Queensland.
Second place and a $1,000 research grant was awarded to Sean Dicks for his presentation, The bereavement experiences of families of potential organ donors, which struck a chord with the audience as an emotional, but important area of research.
An audience favourite was also selected using an electronic poll set up just for the occasion, with Hayley Teasdale claiming a cheque for research funding worth $500 for her presentation, Parkinson's and the plastic brain. She added to her prize pool by also taking out third place from the judges, and picking up a $100 gift voucher.
Each of the competitors also received a bottle of wine from the UC3MT sponsor Lark Hill Wines.
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The UC3MT Finalists before the competition commenced. (L to R) Jane Alver, Berenice Talantes-Becerra, Elaine Cheung, Florence Awino, Lien Tran, Rob Ubrihien, Judy Emily, Alison Childs, Gregory Mowle, Helen Sellers, Hayley Teasdale, Sean Dicks, Barry Horgan, Cynthia Mathew, Fan Wu. Absent - Nadya Urakova. Photo: Marcus Butler
On 31 October, the University will be hosting its Pitch for Funds competition, which is open to all researchers at the University, not just postgraduate students and offers a total prize pool of $7,000. Find out more information here.
The 2016 UC 3MT Finalists were:
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Alison Childs
: Stereotypes and slogans: young migrants' paths from education to work
- Cynthia Mathew : Promising SINES against asthma
- Elaine Cheung : Putting a face to the crime
- Fan Wu : Stopping the spread and recurrence of cancer from 'the seedlings'
- Gregory Mowle : What can Charles Dickens teach us about financial literacy?
- Judy Emily : Searching for value and counting the costs of the road less travelled
- Nadya Urakova: The Force Awakens- What turns a benign virus into a lethal killer?
- Lien Tran : What should we do to keep key employees?
- Hayley Teasdale : Parkinson's and the plastic brain
- Sean Dicks : The bereavement experiences of families of potential organ donors
- Berenice Talamantes-Becerra : Current bacterial identification methods are likely to be wrong
- Florence Awino : Is our food safe?
- Rod Ubrihien : Environmental assessment using gene expression
- Helen Sellers : Talking to the tiger – how cultural perspectives between Australia and India influence our approaches to national security
- Jane Alver : Hear our voices – finding new spaces for women's voices to be heard
- Barry Horgan : Water immersion recovery in sport
