3MT Competition Finalists

College: Science and Engineering

Title: Music is Magical

My PhD encapsulates the combination of music, mirror therapy, and virtual reality, for stroke rehabilitation. As a Biomedical Engineer with a specialisation in Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology, I believe everyone, irrespective of disability, should be able to access the joys and benefits of playing music. I also believe that rehabilitation can and should be enjoyable, and that virtual reality provides an accessible, cost-effective, and immersive medium to deliver it in a novel and fun way.

My motivations for participating in the 3MT were to push myself to present in a challenging format and to learn how to eloquently communicate the fundamental components of my project. 3 minutes doesn’t sound like a lot to memorise, but this competition has given me a greater appreciation for the amount of thought and preparation required to deliver a truly impactful presentation, it’s been difficult and nerve-wracking, but I’m very glad I took part in it! 

College: Education, Psychology and Social Work

Title: Zapping Tinnitus Away

My name is Tharin Sayed and I am an audiologist, mid-way through my PhD. Throughout my career, I have met many people who are experiencing debilitating tinnitus – i.e. any phantom sound that a person hears, in the absence of any external sound. They have sought help from their GP, gone to the ENT specialist and received no answers because, unfortunately, there is no cure for tinnitus.

My PhD project focuses on a new treatment that involves stimulating specific areas of the brain to reduce tinnitus perception. Participating in the 3MT has helped me refine my research pitch so I am able to communicate what I am studying effectively to a broader group of people. I am also passionate about public education, and this has allowed me a platform to bring greater awareness to tinnitus.

College: Science and Engineering

Title: So, You Regret That Tattoo?

My name is Ben, and I am a second-year PhD candidate here at Flinders University. An often-overlooked issue is the large number of Australians who regret their tattoos and seek laser removal therapy. My current research investigates the potential health risks resulting from laser tattoo removal. My project aims to determine the types of toxins that are produced during the procedure so we can make better-informed assessments of risks and safer removal options.

The 3MT was an invaluable experience and helped me develop my communication skills to a wider audience outside of the College of Science and Engineering. It was a great way to raise public awareness, and by doing it in under 3 minutes, added another challenge in keeping the audience entertained and convinced of my research. Presenting my research reminded me of how far I have come since starting out as a younger naive Honours student to the PhD student I am today. Condensing my research down into three minutes also made the weekly phone calls with the grandparents much easier when it came to discussing my PhD. 

College: Nursing and Health Sciences

Title: Empowering Her Heart: Bridging the Gap in Cardiac Rehabilitation for Women in Rural Areas 

Women in rural and remote areas embody resilience and strength, yet they often face unique challenges in accessing the essential healthcare they deserve. My research, the Cardiac Rehabilitation Especially for Women (CREW) Project, focuses on co-designing and evaluating a tailored, web-based cardiac rehabilitation program for women in rural and remote South Australia. My goal is to empower women to take charge of their heart health, ensuring that distance is no longer a barrier to a heart-healthy life.

Participating in the 3MT has been an incredible opportunity to share my work with diverse audiences and improve my public speaking skills. It is also a chance to spotlight the critical need for improved cardiovascular care in under-recognized and underserved women.

College: Medicine and Public Health

Title: Say cheese! Taking better photos of cancer

My name is Olivia Burling and I’m a second year PhD student working on a new diagnostic tool for blood cancer. Unfortunately, certain blood cancers are not compatible with imaging which makes it difficult for doctors to locate, diagnose and monitor these tumours.

My project hopes to change that by creating a new diagnostic tool that will allow doctors to take better photos of blood cancer tumours. Being involved in the 3MT has been a very rewarding experience and has highlighted the need to be able to explain your research to anyone. This is such an important skill to have as a scientist and the 3MT is a great environment to practice in. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my work and bring more awareness to blood cancer!

College: Education, Psychology and Social Work

Title: Connecting Compassion: Can Being Nicer to Ourselves Make us Nicer to Others?

My name is Leah and my PhD research explores whether self-compassion can influence how we treat people, and if being nicer to ourselves can help us be nicer to others. I’m particularly interested in how self-compassion can help us cope with feelings of discomfort and defensiveness, so we can make kinder choices. I love social psychology because I think that developing strong theory is the foundation for everything else that we do in the field, and it informs all the wonderful ways we can build better communities.

The 3MT competition has been a great opportunity for me to reconnect with the story of my research and its importance, as well as getting to know other candidates from across the university. In a PhD it’s easy to get bogged down in the details and nuance, but seeing the bigger picture and getting to share it with others keeps fuelling my passion for the project!

My name is Siobhan, and I’m a plastic surgery doctor who’s passionate about women’s health. I’m undertaking my PhD in post-partum rectus diastasis, or tummy-muscle separation after pregnancy. My PhD is focused on finding the impact of this incredibly common condition on women’s quality of life and to find out if the surgery to fix it (abdominoplasty) is valuable and cost-effective.

I entered the 3MT competition as an opportunity to improve my communication skills and raise awareness about this important women’s health issue. I hope that my passion for this topic comes across in my presentation and that any listeners want to help me to ‘repair the gap’ on rectus diastasis!

My name’s Demi and I’ve just started the second year of my PhD. My research focusses on a understanding the function of a protein that we think is really important for maintaining a healthy pregnancy, with the hope that it will one day lead to new therapeutic strategies for pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia. Participating in the 3MT has been such a wonderful experience and I highly recommend it. When people used to ask me “so what’s your research about?” I would stumble through a confusing explanation as I watched them quickly lose interest. Now, I can explain my research in a much more engaging and understandable way, which is such an important skill as a scientist. It has also been fantastic learning about all the amazing research being conducted at Flinders. Overall, such a worthwhile and enjoyable experience!

My name is Alison Nuske. I am currently in my final year of my PhD candidature exploring the experiences of transition to, and first year of university for autistic students. This is my second time participating in the 3MT as I have been completing my PhD studies part-time. The 3MT has been a fantastic opportunity for me to not only develop my confidence and ability to present my research, but has also provided me with the perfect chance to pause and reflect on my research from a broader perspective. This is something that is often difficult to do when you spend so much of your time focused on the detail of your research. I also really love the opportunity the 3MT provides us to not only hear about other students’ research, but to support each other in developing our research dissemination skills. The 3MT has been such a valuable experience in my candidacy and I highly recommend it to anyone undertaking their PhD candidature!!

My name is Alycia, and I am in my 3rd year of my PhD candidature in Clinical Psychology. My research centres on the development of delusions in clinical disorders such as schizophrenia, with a particular focus on the psychological processes underlying feelings of conviction. My future will likely involve working closely within the fields of both scientific research and clinical practice, meaning that the ability to effectively communicate research and ideas across both worlds will be an essential skill in my career.

The 3MT has been invaluable in helping me develop my skills in this area, as well as enabling me to gain a solid understanding of my research and its implications thus far. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to take a step back and to remember the importance and value behind my research, as well as to be able to share it with friends and colleagues. The skills I have gained through this process will prove invaluable in my future work with clients in clinical practice, and serve me well in my endeavours to communicate scientific research effectively in the wider community.

My name is Anita Lymn. I am a senior cardiac nurse in my third year of my clinical doctorate. My PHD is about building excellence by creating a culture between doctors and nurses that work together to deliver high quality patient care. This 3MT explains my pilot study that made structural changes to the ward round, to improve situational awareness amongst the nurses and doctors so that efficient decision making influenced the timely delivery of patient care. A nurse in the room made a positive difference to medication delays and other key clinical activities.

I went into this competition to improve my presentation skills, learn how to focus on my research and deliver a succinct explanation of my work. The 3MT has given me the opportunity, to express my passion for patient care, and disseminate the vital role nurses have in advocating for their patients, and ensuring we maintain high quality and safety standards.

My PhD focuses on the global need for a Strategic Response Framework in the construction industry in times of crisis. I am an Australian Chartered Accountant with a strong passion for applied research which looks to help industry practitioners in strategically dealing with unpredictable events coming from “leftfield”. The Australian Construction Industry is experiencing such a crisis right now and I am fortunate to be working in partnership with South Australian construction company, G-Force Building and Consultants, as part of this research.

The 3MT is an excellent opportunity to communicate not only the importance of my research but also to understand the powerful impact of research being undertaken right across Flinders University. I have enjoyed and am extremely grateful for this opportunity and the coaching support that the University has provided as part of the competition.

My name is Rebecca Carpenter-Mew and I am in the final year of my PhD candidature. My research explores the ways in which literary fiction has problems with its depiction of older women. I have a vested interest because I am one and was aghast at the picture of ageing that lay ahead of me. I discovered some authors reinscribe pejorative stereotypes through narrative voice, plot endings, conflating declining spaces with an ageing body and character construction through clothing. These literary traps reveal embedded ageist attitudes; they go undetected but perpetuate narrow cliches. 

Distilling research into three minutes for a general audience is a challenge however there is a positive domino effect that extends further than the competition. My ‘flag in the sand’ has been clarified which in turn has refined the overarching story thread of my thesis. I have been amazed at how many times I’ve used sentences and phrases from my three-minute speech in general conversation, in online meetings and at dinner parties. The 3MT process helps bridge the gap between being so deeply immersed in academic scholarship and making my study accessible to the wider world. The opportunity to connect with other postgrads from different colleges and disciplines in the workshops have been valuable because we got to test and trial ideas in a supportive environment. Perhaps best of all, after listening to my 3MT, my husband commented it was the first time he actually understood the essence of what I’m doing!