A rhyming explanation of childhood obesity research has won best performance at Victoria University's 3 Minute Thesis final.
Biomedical and Lifestyle Disease Masters student Tiffany Mann said she was "surprised and ecstatic" to win the August 24 event, which tests a student's capacity to clearly explain their research to a non-specialist audience in less than three minutes.
Miss Mann will now represent Victoria University at the Trans-Tasman Final in Brisbane on October 11, and says she'll rhyme it there too.
"In the heats I really stressed about forgetting my lines so I thought rhyming the whole thing might make it easier to remember," she said. "Well the risk paid off because I remembered it all and people seemed to like it."
Miss Mann said the win had renewed her enthusiasm for research and the whole competition had been a useful exercise in focussing her project.
"It helps you clarify the important points of your research in a logical order and answer the questions about what, why and how you are doing it," she said.
Miss Mann will receive $1000 towards research expenses, plus flights and accommodation for the final in Brisbane.
Second prize of $500 and the People's Choice Award of an iPad both went to Guy Little for his presentation on the experiences of physiotherapists and sports psychologists.
Third prize of $250 went to Rabia Ashraf who is researching immuno-stimulatory properties of probiotic bacteria.
To get involved in the university's 3MT competition contact the Office for Postgraduate Research on 9919 4522 or 3MT@vu.edu.au
