Three Minute Thesis (3MT)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/112501

Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) celebrates the exciting research conducted by PhD students. Developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), the exercise cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 16 of 16
  • ItemOpen Access
    Redefining the trojan horse strategy
    (2023) Ramesh, Saishyam
  • ItemOpen Access
    Adopting an orphan biomarker
    (2021) Liyanage, Tharika
  • ItemOpen Access
    Mysteries of a Beating Heart
    (2019) Louis, Lithin
  • ItemOpen Access
    Targeting the Root of Vision Loss
    (2016) Chu-Tan, Joshua
  • ItemOpen Access
    How to build a brain
    (2014) Bruggeman, Kiara
    Your cells are magnificent little things, every single one is full of complex microsystems all working together to keep you going. They’re more intricate and advanced than any machines we can make, but sometimes… they need a little help to get going. Stem cells are like tiny teenagers, they’re full of potential but they need a kick in the pants to get going, and that’s where I come in. After a stroke, patients are left with chunks of damaged brain tissue. Now, instead of trying to rebuild the incredibly complex human brain from scratch, I’d much give cells the support and encouragement they need to rebuild it themselves. My research goal is to rebuild damaged brain tissue, but in truth, stem cells will be doing all the actual building, I’m just making materials that tell them how to build a brain.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Stuck at the airport: a guide to finding the public intellectual in popular fiction
    (2014) Mathew, Imogen
    It's happened to all of us. You’re tired, you’re at the airport when suddenly, the dreaded announcement – your flight’s been delayed by four hours. So you head to the bookstore. You know that you should go for the Booker-prize winning novel. But it’s the literary equivalent of Weet-bix, and you’re craving the chocolate crosissant. You want the courtroom drama. You want the sci-fi fantasy. Not Meeting Right by Anita Heiss gives you both. It’s an easy, lightweight read. But don’t let that fool you. Heiss’ chick lit is unmistakably, and pointedly political – and that’s her goal: she uses chick lit to write the experience of women like her, women who are young, urban and Aboriginal, into the consciousness of mainstream, non-Aboriginal Australia.
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    Improving efficiency at Australia's largest port
    (2013) Kelareva, Elena
  • ItemOpen Access
    The Voice of Silence
    (2014) Appuhamilage, Udeni Hanchapola
    Silence; have you ever wondered if silence speaks? If it does, then how it speaks? My research is about silence, but a very particular sort. In 2006, I started working as a clinical psychologist in Sri Lanka, working with conflict affected communities. They told me stories of war related violence, infuriating injustices and immense human resiliance.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Salt water: simply vital
    (2014) Duignan, Tim
    A mathematical equation, just a string of symbols scribbled on a page, can be more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Newton’s equations of motion took us to the moon. Schrodinger’s equation, the foundation of quantum mechanics describes the chemical properties of everything around you. These equations are so useful because they are tools for making incredibly accurate predictions, leading to some of the greatest achievements of human kind. Unfortunately though, in many complex situations solving these equations is too hard. For instance, we would like to predict whether or not two molecules dissolved in water will bind together, but using Schrodinger’s equation to do this can be beyond the powers of even the hugest supercomputer.
  • ItemOpen Access
    A table spread with hunger: Iranian hospitality and Afghan refugees in the city of Shiraz
    (2013) Yarbakhsh, Elisabeth
    Imagine, for a moment, that your neighbour’s house burns down. What would you do for them? Offer them your spare room, a place to sleep for a night or two? And when would the welcome wear thin? After a week? A month? A year? How about thirty-four years? Thirty-four years ago, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, precipitating one of the largest and most protracted refugee crises the world has ever seen.
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    Judging portraits
    (2014) Richardson, Alice
  • ItemOpen Access
    The politics of co-optation in Myanmar
    (2014) Win, Chit
    Can you imagine Clive Palmer and Tony Abbott sharing a bunk bed in a dormitory? Would Tony be annoyed by Clive’s snoring? Or would Clive be irritated by Tony’s early morning workout? Well, there’s a place on earth where parliamentarians do live in dorms. Let me take you to Nay Pyi Taw, the new capital of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. In 2010, after two decades of rule, the military decided to transform itself into a civilian government. But the parliament it created is overwhelmingly controlled by the pro-military party and ethnic minorities are co-opted into the parliament, to create the appearance of diversity and legitimacy while containing them in the dormitories to control their movements.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The 1911 revolution in communist Chinese propaganda
    (2013) Kositz, Bryce
    Have any of you visited another English speaking country, like the US? They speak English, but slightly differently from out here. For example, if you go to Maccas and ask for chips in the US, you’ll get potato chips, not the deep fried strips of potato you call chips. You have to ask for fries. And when you come back to Australia after a long trip there, you might accidently go to Macca’s and ask for fries. You’d laugh it off and correct yourself, no harm done, right? But imagine that people who heard your slip up did think it made you bad person. The coworker you came with is so shocked by your choice of words that they spread rumors about you at work. In fact, the only place you can find work any longer is that same Maccas.
  • ItemOpen Access
    The law and reality of the coal seam gas industry in NSW
    (2013) Edwards, Adam Glen
    You’ve all seen the signs at the side of the road, Stop Coal Seam Gas, so is the Sun rising or setting on the Coal Seam Gas industry. Well, I’m not quite sure yet, but I know what the problem is. The public don’t trust gas companies and the government to protect the environment. And the problem isn’t just here; it’s worldwide and getting worse. So I like to tell people my research is about sustainable development, delivering better environmental outcomes, and public engagement.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Secure the social security - a case study of China's pension system
    (2013) Huang, Fei
    Do you think you’ll have enough money to support your retirement life? Your answer may be yes, because we all have social security. But, is it really secure? People in Greece may not think so, as their pensions have been reduced significantly since the European debt crisis. Although it is an extreme case, pension systems in many other countries are also unsustainable. And when it comes to China, the situation is even more challenging and alarming due to its one-child policy. This picture describes a typical structure of millions of Chinese families including myself. My husband and I are both the only child in our families. In the future, we’ll have to support four parents between us. It’ll be such a big pressure that not only my generation but also the pension system is hardly able to handle it. Researchers from around the world have been searching for solutions for many years. But why designing a good pension system is so difficult?
  • ItemOpen Access
    3MT : A fine time to find primes
    (2013) Dudek, Adrian W
    We all have a shared history; when we were in primary school, our teachers told us that a number is prime if it’s only divisible by one and itself. We might also share severe scarring, from when we popped our little hand in the air and asked the question: primes - what are they good for?
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