Mandy’s tops at pitching a three-minute thesis

ANGLESEA’S Mandy Cooke has crammed 80,000 words into 180 seconds as one of the six finalists in this year’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at Charles Sturt University.
This year, the final of the annual competition for PhD students was held online for the first time.
Last night (Wednesday, July 1) , the six PhD students presented their thesis via public livestream in just three minutes in a bid to win a $1,000 travel and research grant and represent Charles Sturt at the Asia-Pacific 3MT Final.
Ms Cooke, who is studying online at the university’s Faculty of Arts and Education, gave a rapid-fire summation of her thesis “It’s not just physical: Understanding risk-taking in early childhood education”.
She said she entered the competition in the first year of her thesis and “decided to give it another go” in her final year – her thesis is due in about four weeks.
“The process of creating a three-minute thesis is so beneficial in thinking through what the key ingredients are of this: what’s the why, what’s my key question, and to be able to put all of that in lay terms, to be able to summarise your methodology in two sentences,” she said.
“You start with the ‘So what?’ and this is what I’m doing, this is how I’m doing it, and this is the benefit that it’s going to have for the rest of the world.
“I have my speech up on the kitchen bench, and every time I go to the kitchen I stand and look out at the view, and practise it.”
Charles Sturt University’s manager of graduate studies Paul Shaw said the 3MT competition was a valuable opportunity for PhD students to exhibit some of the diverse and innovative studies being conducted at the university.
“The concept of the 3MT competition is simple – the presenter can only use one static PowerPoint slide and has just three minutes to present and explain their complex research in a way that can understood by everyone.
“It is important that researchers are able to explain their research to wider audiences and this competition encourages PhD students to develop their skills to
do that.”
The winner of the Charles Sturt 3MT finals will win a $1,000 research and travel grant and go on to represent the university at the 2020 Asia-Pacific 3MT Final on October 1. The runner-up will receive a $750 research and travel grant.
The 3MT competition was established by The University of Queensland in 2008 and is now held in more than 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.