Photo caption: University of Canterbury 3 Minute Thesis competition winner Jess Love.
Doctor of Education student Jess Love won the 3 Minute Thesis challenge at the University of Canterbury's Research Student Showcase held at The Court Theatre for the first time last night.
Her presentation, called "Is Anybody Listening?", focused on what makes a successful transition from school to adult life for learners with a disability. Love says the biggest inspiration for her research was her youngest brother Josh who is autistic and was non-verbal until he was about five years old.
"Growing up, I learned so much from him. I also got to work with lots of family friends who had disabilities and seeing them move from school to adult life and not having anything to go to and not having that structure; I really wanted to make a change."
Last night's event, which is part of the global 3 Minute Thesis competition, challenges research master’s and doctoral students to present their research in no more than three minutes, using just one static slide. The event had support from local business and industry representatives, with Business Canterbury Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Hanna and local businesswoman Dorenda Britten two of the four judges, and Kea Aerospace Chief Technology Officer Dr Philipp Sueltrop the guest speaker.
Ten winners from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) faculty heats competed at last night's final and, as the winner, Love will go on to represent UC at the online 3MT Asia-Pacific Competition.
Love says she is "stoked" by her success, which comes with a $3000 research grant prize that she plans to put towards attending international conferences.
"I feel really proud and I'm so grateful to all the people who have helped me. My Toastmasters group, the Faculty of Education, my partner and friends - being able to see all those faces in the crowd when I was speaking and when I won just made it worth it."
A key learning from the experience was to "think outside the box", she says. "I had a lot of fun trying to think of different ways to engage the audience and bring them into my speech. So definitely think outside the box with presenting your research."
The People's Choice and second place 3 Minute Thesis winner was Anna Treffer from the Human Interface Technology Lab in the Faculty of Engineering, with her talk on dance training using augmented reality, and in third place, was Faculty of Arts Linguistics student Stephanie Foxton, speaking about inclusion in sport.
UC Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation Professor Lucy Johnston says the showcase is a valuable opportunity for UC students to share their innovative ideas and cutting-edge research and to make connections. “These competitions help our master’s and doctoral students develop the critically important skill of communication; explaining complex research and making it accessible and engaging for a wide audience.
“I was very impressed by the winners and with the high standard overall. Research at UC is thriving.”
Prize winners in two other related research competitions were announced along with the 3 Minute Thesis contest last night. For the Thesis Film Festival, which involves research students communicating the impact of their research through a 90 second video, the People’s Choice award and second place went to Product Design student Sanduni Geeganage from the Faculty of Engineering. In third place was Xiaoxu Yang from the Faculty of Education, and the winner, Yixin Liu, was also from the Faculty of Education.
Yixin Liu also won third place in the Exhibit Your Thesis (EYT) competition where students must communicate their research through an engaging and informative poster. Hephzibah Mithushana Jonathan Rahulan from the UC Business School won the EYT People’s Choice Award, second place went to Biology student MB Turnage, and first place was awarded to Ecology student Lauren Hitt, both from the Faculty of Science.
