Rising research stars battle for thesis fame
- Author: Ebony Preen
- Posted: 23rd August 2011
A presentation about evolution and moral ecology has won the 2011 Arts and Social Sciences Three Minute Thesis Competition. Ten of our brightest postgraduate research students had just one powerpoint slide and 180 seconds to give a compelling presentation on their thesis topic and its significance.
The winner of the competition, Tim Dean, from the School of History and Philosophy, presented his thesis topic Evolution and Moral Ecology which explores the fundamental phenomenon of moral disagreement using evolution as a tool.
Tim praised the value of the competition for research students, “I think this is terrific competition, it really forces you to step back and think about the big picture and what you are trying to achieve with your research.”
Ioana Oprea from the School of Social Sciences and International Studies placed second for her presentation on Higher Education – A Race to Happiness, which attempts to answer the question: “how will this degree make me happy?”
The People’s Choice prize went to Sandra Garrido, from the School of English, Media and Performing Arts (EMPA) who presented on her thesis titled Negative Emotions in Music.
Other students who took part in the competition were Cynthia Fernandez Roich, Susie Pratt, Gabrielle Dixon-Ritchie, Stefan Solomon, Uraiwan Keodara, Timothy Broady and Cris Castro.
Dr Michelle Langford, event compare and EMPA Postgraduate Research Coordinator, said the Faculty competition is really important for building research communities amongst postgraduate research students. “It gives them a chance to share their research really succinctly and communicate it in a way that allows the rest of the world to understand what they are doing.”
Judges included Associate Dean (Research), Dr Kristy Muir; Director of Postgraduate Research A/Prof Stephen Fortescue and Dr John Attridge, from the School of English, Media and Performing Arts, who scored students on language and presentation skills as well as the all important ability to watch the clock.
Dr Muir said it was a close competition. “They did a fantastic job on being able to summarise what their thesis is about, why it is important and communicating that to the audience so it made our job as judges quite difficult.”
The winning students will go on to compete in the 2011 UNSW Interfaculty Final to be held on 1 September. The finalist will represent UNSW at the grand-final of the Australia and New Zealand Competition held at the University of Western Australia on 29 September.
Video: Reza Taheri
