The UNE Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals concluded with the top three competitors being declared in what was an inspiring showcase of research and ideas.
The academic research communication competition, developed by The University of Queensland, seeks to challenge research students by asking them to condense their 80,000-word thesis into a compelling three-minute presentation for a non-specialist, general audience.
Each Faculty and School had hosted their own 3MT competition prior to the event, where eight finalists emerged to compete in the finals.
The winner of UNE 3MT was Simona Strungaru from the School of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education (HASSE) with her presentation ‘Disrupting Peace: A Critical Inquiry into Power and the Prevalence of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Conducted by UN Peacekeepers’.
Simona came out the winner with her harrowing yet impactful research on the alleged abuse of vulnerable women and children by United Nations Peacekeepers.
Simona is the first finalist from HASSE to win the UNE 3MT competition since it began in 2010 and will go on to compete in the Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition.
In 2nd place was Ariella Moser from the School of Environmental and Rural Science (ERS) with ‘Detecting Better Dogs’.
Ariella summarised her thesis as a quest to create a 'job interview' for detector dogs. She identified a set of desirable qualities, and similar to a job interview, gives potential canine candidates a series of tests and games that will show how they respond in certain situations, and whether they have what it takes.
This will make it easier to identify which pups will be best suited to the job, shaping how we select detector dogs in the future.
Taking 3rd place was Benjamin Adjah Torgbor from the School of Science and Technology (S&T) and his presentation ‘Remote sensing-based mango yield forecasting’.
Mangoes are, in Benjamin’s words, “the King of Fruits”. His fascinating presentation outlined his research in forecasting mango yield using remote sensing technology. If successful, his research could save significant yields from waste and save growers millions of dollars in the process.
Due to COVID-19, the rules to this year’s competition had to be modified to accommodate the new virtual format. Judges assessed the video presentations through the criteria of comprehension and content as well as engagement and communication.
One of the judges, Bryn Griffiths, noted, “I couldn’t fault the way anyone engaged with the audience.”
The amount of data the finalists had to decode through story-telling functions for the layperson to understand was amazing.
Journalist and judge, Rachel Gray, was also thoroughly impressed with the finalists, commenting, “I wish each one of you could win.”
Congratulations to all our finalists and participants of this year’s competition. The Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition will be held Wednesday, 19th of October via video submission.
The other finalists included:
Nicole Allenden – School of Psychology
What should we eat? Realistic solutions for reducing our food footprint
Paul Hawkins – UNE Business School
Limitless
Patricia Vagg – School of Law
Tools in the shed: Justice of Geography
Kia Nikoumanesh – Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit
Improving breeding strategies for canola by integrating genomic and indirect phenotypic selections for early vigour
Timothy Frauenfelder – School of Environmental and Rural Science
How did Aussie dinos eat?
