Visualise Your Thesis ™
an international programme for graduate researchers
In a climate of knowledge exchange and community engagement, communicating to an audience outside the Academy is becoming increasingly important for research professionals.
The Programme
Visualise Your Thesis is an international programme that challenges graduate researchers to present their research in a 60-second audio-visual explainer. The programme provides an opportunity for universities from across the world to showcase their graduate research and for the participants to build essential information and digital literacy skills to effectively communicate complex research to a general audience.
Currently-enrolled PhD, MPhil, and Professional Doctorate (Research) candidates can participate. It is suitable for all disciplines and for students at any stage of their candidature. Visit our Figshare site to view past entries.
How to Participate
We invite institutions to participate by running a local Visualise Your Thesis programme for their own graduate researchers using the official guidelines and programme kit provided by the University of Melbourne upon registration.
Expressions of Interest (EOI) & Registrations for 2023 are now closed.
If you are interested in hosting a local programme and participating in the International Visualise Your Thesis programme or have questions please email the team at visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au.
History
Find out more about the origin and development of the Visualise Your Thesis programme.
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2022
2022 sees the fourth International Visualise Your Thesis Competition, where the winners of local competitions – organised by national and international universities – will compete against each other in an online International Competition final.
Latest Competition Updates
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Visualise Your Thesis Competition!
Watch our awards video below to view the winning entries and our 2022 judges comments.
Congratulations to all of our 2022 International competition winners!
2022 1st Place
Drew Min Su Cylinder
Neural Correlates of Behavioural Changes During Propofol General Anaesthesia in Caenorhabditis Elegans, The University of Queensland.2022 2nd Place
Freya Muir
New Quest: Protect Our Beaches from Climate Change! The University of Glasgow.2022 3rd Place
Samuel Widodo
Switching cancer-promoting macrophages to fight brain cancer, The University of Melbourne.2022 Trending VYT Award Winner
Drew Min Su Cylinder
Neural Correlates of Behavioural Changes During Propofol General Anaesthesia in Caenorhabditis Elegans, The University of Queensland.We would like to thank all the 2022 institutions for hosting a local competition and congratulate all the local winners that went on to the International competition.
View the full list of 2022 Local winners that competed in the international competition on the VYT 2022 figshare repository - https://visualiseyourthesis.figshare.com/2022
2022 Competition Timeline
- March - 5 June
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Institutions submit an expression of interest and register to host a local Visualise Your Thesis competition.
- March - August
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Visualise Your Thesis local competitions held at individual universities worldwide. Winners of local Visualise Your Thesis competitions are entered into the International Visualise Your Thesis Competition (online).
- 3 - 9 October
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Trending on VYT is a way to engage students in promoting their videos online and for the videos about their research to reach even more people. It’s a win-win! Tweet/retweet your entry with the hashtag #TrendingOnVYT
The winner is selected based on how many views their video receives on the VYT International Figshare repository. Views are counted between: October 3rd 00:01 – October 9th 23:59 (Melbourne, Australia time).
- Wednesday 19 October
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Between 17:10 – 19:00
Visualise Your Thesis prize announcement to take place at the 2022 eResearch Australasia Conference. With social media announcement following event.
2022 Participating Institutions
ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
Australian National University
CQ University Australia
Curtin University
Deakin University
La Trobe University
Monash University
Queensland University of Technology
Swinburne University
University College Dublin
University of Adelaide
University of Canterbury
University of Glasgow
University of Johannesburg
University of Melbourne
University of New Wouth Wales
University of Pretoria
University of Queensland
University of Sydney
University of Technology Sydney
Victoria University
Western Sydney University
Judges
Dr. Katy Peplin
Dr. Katy Peplin turned her difficulties in graduate school into a coaching business built around the idea that you can be a scholar and a human at the same time. Thrive PhD is a thriving community that has grown into courses, writing groups, one-on-one work, and workshops around the world. Learn more at thrive-phd.com, or @ThrivePhD on social media!
Cr Davydd Griffiths
Davydd moved to Melbourne to study in 1993 and since that time has lived or worked in the City of Melbourne. Davydd worked as a school teacher for many years and remains passionate about the power of education to transform lives and connect communities. After leaving teaching he worked as a policy advisor in both education and health with a particular focus on community health provision, men’s health and mental health. Addressing the impact of loneliness, particularly in rapidly transforming urban communities, is another of Davydd’s key interests. In recent years Davydd has owned and operated hospitality venues in Kensington and West Melbourne and has experienced first-hand the impacts of COVID-19 on business. Davydd is portfolio lead for Education and Innovation. For more details see Councillor portfolios. He is also a member of the Chief Executive Officer Employment Matters Committee.
Dr Eva Méndez
Eva Méndez holds a PhD in Library and Information Sciences (LIS) and she is an expert in metadata.
Based on her Twitter profile she is an ‘open knowledge militant’ (@evamen). She has been a lecturer at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) since 1997. Dr Méndez has been an active member of several international research teams, advisory boards and communities including: DCMI, OpenAire, Metadata2020, RDA, etc. In 2005-06 she was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholarship at the Metadata Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA). She has taken part in and led several research projects (currently FAIRsFAIR, FAIR4Health and YUFERING) and she acted as advisor to many more in fields related to standardization, metadata, semantic web, open data, digital repositories and libraries, in addition to information policies for development in several countries. In 2015 she won the Young Researcher of Excellence award of her university. In November 2017 she was named “Open Data Champion” by SPARC Europe. She was the chair of the EU-OSPP (European Open Science Policy Platform) on behalf of YERUN (Young European Research Universities Network) for the second mandate of the platform and RDA (Research Data Alliance) ambassador for Interdisciplinary research. She is currently Deputy Vice President for Scientific Policy-Open Science at UC3M.Prizes
The 2022 International Competition final prize pool is:
1st prize - AUD$ 5,000
2nd prize - AUD$2,000
3rd prize - AUD$1,000
Viewers' Choice - Figshare is delighted to sponsor this year's Visualise Your Thesis Viewers' Choice winner with a subscription to the Research Impact Academy. Figshare are passionate about empowering early career researchers to develop their scholarly communication skills and this is the perfect tool to build upon the skills they've already developed through the Visualise Your Thesis competition. Figshare hope the winner continues to share their future scholarly research openly on Figshare!
Sponsors
The International Visualise Your Thesis competition showcase is powered by figshare.
Contact us
For further information, institutions can contact visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au
Please note: University of Melbourne graduate researchers should visit the UoM Visualise Your Thesis site.
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2021
Twenty five institutions from six countries competed in the third international competition. All finalists’ works were added to the Visualise Your Thesis figshare repository where the public can watch and download the creative commons licenced videos, and the creators can gain insights into their impact through altmetrics tracking. The field was judged by a three judge panel and announced at eResearch Australasia on October 14th 2021.
The 2021 international prize pool totalled $8,000 AUD. The winners were:
2021 VYT International Competition prizes and winners:
First prize: AUD $5,000
Krystall Campbell, University of Technology Sydney
Second prize: AUD $2,000
Hannah Petocz, La Trobe University
Third prize: AUD $1,000
Ratanapat Suchat, Swinburine University of Technology
Highly commended
- YC Lin, Australia National University, Understanding Piezo, a force-sensing molecular machine
2021 Trending on VYT competition
The entry with the most views as recorded on figshare between 4-10 October 2021: Md Eaysir Arafat, Queensland University of Technology, Effectiveness of Interventions for Mobile Phone Distracted Pedestrians
The winner of the 2021 Trending on VYT competition will be the video with the most views as recorded in the 2021 figshare gallery. Downloads will not be used to determine the winner.
Views were counted from midnight, Monday 4th October (GMT), to 11:59pm on Sunday, 10 October (GMT). Make sure to check your local start and local end times so your view counts.
The 2021 judges were Dr Tamika Heiden, Al Cossar and Professor Deb Verhoeven. Find out more about the 2021 judges here.
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2020
Twenty one universities from five countries competed in the second international competition. All finalists’ works were added to the Visualise Your Thesis figshare repository where the public can watch and download the creative commons licenced videos, and the creators can gain insights into their impact through altmetrics tracking. The field was judged by a three judge panel and announced at eResearch Australasia in Brisbane on October 19th 2020. Read more about the 2020 International Judges.
The 2020 international prize pool totalled $8,000 AUD. Our winners were:
1st place - Kelly Wilson-Stewart, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), $5,000 AU
Protecting nurses from radiation exposure
The judges said: From a simple, almost storybook opening we are taken on a clear explanatory arc to the heart of the problem - x-rays don’t behave in an orderly fashion as one might imagine – and onwards, to the accompaniment of a cannily-chosen soundtrack, to a restrained but effective emotional payoff – these are not storybook characters but real people – lending the project a sense of importance and relevance that is inescapable. The result? We WANT this project to succeed! Great communication and salesmanship for an important research project.
2nd place - Ané van der Walt, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), $2,000 AU
The Narrative Atlas: creative prototyping and multivocality in archaeology
The judges said: This was just beautiful and was a well told and visually rich illustrated story itself about how to make a story. In addition, it explained well the cultural importance of the project and indeed how the atlas would have a life after the project ends.
3rd place - Maleen Jayasuriya, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), $1,000 AU
One Small Step for a PhD Student, One Giant Leap for Mobility Scooters
The judges said: This grabbed immediately with its humour, engaging character and a good story – which made all the judges laugh. But there was more than humour – a clever use of animation and a mix of graphics, succinctly explained a quite complex solution for very a real world problem.
Highly commended
- Nicola Rivers, Monash University, "Everything not saved will be lost"
The judges said: An elegant and lucid explanation of species recovery technology drawing on the easily-relatable analogy of data back-up. We appreciate immediately what the problem is and are led to an equally clear grasp of the proposed solution. Deceptively simple animation gains sophistication through a limited colour palette. The choice of a stylish and highly legible font completes the picture making for an excellent communication package.
- Gwendolyn Foo, UNSW, Using Robots to Solve the World’s Fastest Growing Problem
The judges said: There was a great use of photos and images to explain the human and societal costs of waste. The editing of images and the soundtrack provided really good tension in the story, which led logically to the resolution described by the research project.
2020 Trending on VYT competition
The entry with the most views as recorded on figshare between 12-19 October 2020: Chantelle Clarke, CQU, Supporting mental health for women with lipoedema through compassionate mind training. Chantelle wins a VYT prize pack incl. a Kindle Prologue. (6"touch display 167 PPI. 4GB wifi).
The winner of the 2020 Trending on VYT competition will be the video with the most views as recorded in the 2020 figshare gallery. Downloads will not be used to determine the winner.
Views were counted from midnight, Monday 12th October (GMT), to 11:59pm on Sunday, 18 October (GMT). Make sure to check your local start and local end times so your view counts.
The 2020 judges were: Professor Ginny Barbour, Graeme Base and Professor Deb Verhoeven. Find out more about the 2020 judges here.
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2019
2019 saw our first true International competition, when 16 institutions from 4 countries ran a local competition and sent their winner to the International final. The field was judged by a three judge panel and announced at eResearch Australasia in Brisbane on October 22nd 2019 by Professor Ginny Barbour. Read more about the 2019 International Judges.
All winning entries were showcased on our figshare site, provided with the support of Digital Science, where they can be reused in accordance with a creative commons licence of the entrants choosing. The site also provides detailed viewing metrics so that students can learn more about the reach of their presentations.
The 2019 international prize pool totalled $8,000 AUD. Our inaugural winners were:
- 1st prize - Annaclaire McDonald, University of Technology Sydney ($5,000 AU) Fantastic Metals & Where to Phyt Them
- 2nd prize - Donovan Garcia-Ceron, La Trobe University ($2,000 AUD) Exploring Extracellular Vesicles From Plant Fungal Pathogens
- 3rd prize - Carmen Glanville, University of Melbourne ($1,000 AUD)Protecting Pets by Changing People
The team presented at THETA 2019 in Wollongong on the benefits of Visualise Your Thesis for students and research administrators, and at eResearch Australasia in Brisbane on creating digital stories for impact in research.
The 2019 judges were: Professor Ginny Barbour, Assoc. Professor Tim Sherratt and Sam Muirhead. Find out more about the 2019 judges here.
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2018
After a relatively short history the competition was offered nationally so that other institutions could get involved. It was almost immediately forced to go international such was the demand from universities around the world. Each participating university sent their local winning entry to be showcased in the non-competitive online winners' gallery hosted by the University of Melbourne.
Institutions received a competition kit and resources to run their local competitions with the support of the University of Melbourne Visualise Your Thesis team, and the feedback from the early adopters was used to refine the competition processes for the future.
The team presented at the Australian Research Management Society conference in Hobart, speaking about the development of the competition to date.
View the 2018 entries here
University of Hong Kong local competition entrants 2018
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2017
In August 2017, the competition became Pitch Your Thesis and, as an indication of how far the competition had come in its short history, judge Simon Clews was joined by academic celebrity, Associate Professor Inger Mewburn (known to all as the Thesis Whisperer).
First prize that year was awarded to "Mathematics and assessment in early childhood education" by Rachel Pollitt, second prize to "A seasonal thermal energy storage system for space heating" by Sheikh Khaleduzzaman Shah, and third prize to "Designing animal-computer interaction to shape zoo visitors' perceptions of animals" by Sarah Webber. The popular Viewer's Choice prize went to "Saving life with new artificial blood vessels" by Fatemeh Karimi.
University of Melbourne competition entrants with competition judges, Simon Clews and Inger Mewburn 2017
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2016
In August 2016 the competition put down its digital roots and became an ePoster competition called Visualise My Thesis. Still Melbourne-only in these early days, the competition challenged PhDs to effectively communicate complex research to a general audience.
First prize was awarded to "Imagination of adventure in today's art" by Emilie Walsh, second prize went to "Development of the Rowley Shoals Reefs" by Jackson McCaffrey and third prize to "Weak feet and walking, it’s in the shoes" by Rachel Kennedy. That year also saw a new prize, the Viewers' Choice prize, which also went to Emilie Walsh.
The 2016 competition was judged by Simon Clews (Director of the Melbourne Engagement Lab).
University of Melbourne competition entrants with competition judge Simon Clews 2016
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2015
2015 saw the precursor to the Visualise Your Thesis competition, the Researcher@Library Week Poster competition. Part of the University of Melbourne's inaugural Researcher@Library Week.
The competition was won by Matthew Wood, a PhD Candidate researching Tectonic Geomorphology. Second prize was awarded to Marcella Purnama, a Publishing and Communications Master's student, and third prize to Vincent Bachtiar, who was undertaking a PhD in Mechanical Engineering.
The competition was successful and extremely popular, but there was clearly a demand for the poster to do more - to be more engaging, and even dramatic. An ePoster competition was almost inevitable.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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What’s in the programme kit for programme administrators?
- Programme rules
- Template (Powerpoint - ppt)
- Judging criteria and judging rubric
- Technical instructions
- How to run the programme
- Participant resources:
- Participant submission checklist
- How Graduate Researchers use the template
- Tips for Graduate Researchers to create their video
- Tips for Graduate Researchers to add audio to their video
- Guidelines for the use of the Visualise Your Thesis identity and concept
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What training is suggested for participants?
It is up to individual institutions to devise and offer training sessions for programme participants.
The University of Melbourne, for past programmes, offered the following supporting resources presented in a workshop, video, or LMS:
- Working with PowerPoint
- Principles of graphic design and visual presentation
- Writing succinctly for a non-specialist audience
- Effective video storytelling for researchers
- Copyright, for example: keeping your entry compliant, seeking permissions, accessing expired copyright materials, protecting your copyright materials.
We highly recommend incorporating information on how to source and cite copyright-compliant visual or audio-visual material into any training resources you provide.
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How do I get the programme kit?
Expressions of Interest (EOI) & Registrations for 2023 are now closed.
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Are there any costs involved?
There are no costs involved in participating in the programme; however, all local prizes are to be supplied by the individual participating institutions. The University of Melbourne does not provide prizes for local programmes.
The 2023 International programme final prize pool can be found under the 2023 tab.
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Where can I get further information?
Please contact us via visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au for further information.
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How does this programme differ from the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®)?
This programme does not have a verbal presentation component and relies purely on each submission's visual presentation. Students who are in earlier stages of research (have not reached confirmation/ before writing up) are also welcome to enter the programme.
Sponsorship Enquiries
Sponsorship enquiries are welcome at any time. Businesses interested in finding out more about sponsorship opportunities associated with the programme should email visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au for further information and a sponsorship prospectus.
Contact us
For further information, institutions can contact visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au. You can also connect with us by following the Visualise Your Thesis LinkedIn.
Please note: University of Melbourne graduate researchers should visit the UoM Visualise Your Thesis site.
2023 marks the fifth International Visualise Your Thesis programme, where students selected by local programmes run by universities from around the world participate in the Visualise Your Thesis International programme.
Latest Programme Updates
Announcing the 2023 Awards
Watch our awards video below to view the winning entries and our 2023 judges comments.
Congratulations to all of our 2023 International competition winners!
1st Place
Tegan Clark, It’s Dusty Down Under, Australian National University
2nd Place
Kate Revell, Year 7/8 Student Engagement in Performing-Arts, University of Canterbury
3rd Place
Tara Crandon, “Weathering the Storm”: Understanding Climate Anxiety and Coping in Your People, The University of Queensland
Trending VYT Award Winner
Tara Crandon, “Weathering the Storm”: Understanding Climate Anxiety and Coping in Your People, The University of Queensland
We would like to thank all the 2023 institutions for hosting a local programme and congratulate all participants who took part from 23 institutions across the world.
View the full list of 2023 Local winners that competed in the international competition on the VYT 2023 figshare repository: https://visualiseyourthesis.figshare.com/2023_International
Announcing the 2023 judges
We are excited to announce our judges for this year's Visualise Your Thesis programme: Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles and Dr David Phipps! Our judges will review the entries and select the first, second and third prize winners. The prizes will be simultaneously announced in person at the e-Research Australasia Conference held in October and online.
Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles
Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles MNZM heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland where she and her team are on the hunt for new antibiotics. Siouxsie is a firm believer that research doesn’t end with a peer-reviewed publication, so has spent years learning how to communicate and demystify science. She’s won many awards for her efforts, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Communication and in 2019 was appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to microbiology and science communication. In early 2020, Siouxsie joined forces with Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris to make the science of the COVID-19 pandemic clear and understandable. Their award-winning graphics have been translated into multiple languages and were used by governments and organisations around the world. Siouxsie was the Supreme Winner of the Stuff Westpac 2020 Women of Influence Award, one of the BBC’s 100 influential women of 2020, and the 2021 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.
Image credit: Eve Mackay
Dr David Phipps
Dr David Phipps is a global leader in research impact, and the Assistant Vice-President, Research Strategy & Impact, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation at York University, Canada. In this role, David is the administrative lead for all research programs and their impacts our communities, including graduate researchers. He has received honours and awards from the Canadian Association of Research Administrators, Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, International Network of Research Management Societies and the EU based Knowledge Economy Network. David also received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in knowledge mobilisation.
Trending on VYT
We are excited to announce that the Trending on VYT prize is back, sponsored by Figshare. The participant achieving the highest number of views for their video on the VYT 2023 Figshare repository between Monday, 02 October 2023 00:01 – Friday, 06 October 2023 23:59 AEDT will be recognised.
Start spreading the word and getting ready to share your favourite videos!
The individual with the most views in the Trending on VYT event will receive a Research Impact Academy 1-year Gold Membership. The Research Impact Academy is committed to unveiling the remarkable research being conducted worldwide through specialised training solutions, consulting, and global membership for researchers and research support staff. The Gold Membership includes the following:
- Access to checklists, cheat sheets, and workbooks
- Access to monthly webinar recordings
- Be part of the Members Only Facebook community
- Access to all Research Impact Summit Interviews
- Two 30-Minute consulting sessions
- Quarterly member meet-ups.
Find out more about the Research Impact Academy here.
Figshare, the prize sponsor, is dedicated to empowering early career researchers to enhance their scholarly communication skills, making it an ideal tool to complement their skills developed through the Visualise Your Thesis programme. Figshare hopes the recipient will continue to openly share their future scholarly research on Figshare!
Trending on VYT rules
- The winner will be the individual whose video on the VYT International Figshare repository achieves the highest number of views.
- Views will be counted between: Monday, 02 October 2023 00:01 – Friday, 06 October 2023 23:59 AEDT.
- No bots allowed! Each view must originate from a real and genuine person.
Participating Institutions 2023
Australian National University
CQUniversity
Curtin University
Deakin University
Federation University Australia
La Trobe University
Macquarie University
Monash University
Queensland University of Technology
Swinburne University
The University of Glasgow
The University of Melbourne
The University of Newcastle
The University of Queensland
The University of Sydney
University College Dublin
University of Adelaide
University of Canterbury
University of Johannesburg
University of Pretoria
University of Technology Sydney
UNSW Sydney
Victoria University
Please note that Expressions of Interest (EOIs) and registrations for institutions to host a local Visualise Your Thesis programme in 2023 are now closed.
Prizes
The 2023 International prize pool is:
1st prize - AUD$ 5,000
2nd prize - AUD$2,000
3rd prize - AUD$1,000
2023 Programme Timeline
- March - 5 June
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Institutions submit an expression of interest and register to host a local Visualise Your Thesis programme.
- March - August
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Visualise Your Thesis local programmes held at individual universities worldwide. Winners of local Visualise Your Thesis programmes are entered into the International Visualise Your Thesis Programme (online).
- October
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Trending on VYT is a way to engage students in promoting their videos online and for the videos about their research to reach even more people. It’s a win-win! Share your entry using the Figshare DOI link and with the hashtag #TrendingOnVYT.
The winner is selected based on how many views their video receives on the VYT International Figshare repository between Monday, 02 October 2023 00:01 – Friday, 06 October 2023 23:59 AEDT. The winner will receive a Research Impact Academy 1-year Gold Membership, sponsored by Figshare.
- October
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Visualise Your Thesis prize announcement to be made online and in person at the e-Research Australasia Conference
Sponsors
The International Visualise Your Thesis showcase is powered by figshare. figshare also the sponsors of the Trending on Visualise Your Thesis prize.
Contact us
For further information, institutions can contact visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au. You can also connect with us by following the Visualise Your Thesis LinkedIn.
Please note: University of Melbourne graduate researchers should visit the UoM Visualise Your Thesis site.
Check out the resources below to support you in coordinating your programme.
Powerpoint Resources
Microsoft's PowerPoint Training Resources
Effective Video Storytelling for Researchers
1. Finding your why
Chapter 1 of the 'Effective Video Storytelling for Researchers' series
2. Show, don't tell
Chapter 2 of the 'Effective Video Storytelling for Researchers' series
3. Your video lab at home
Chapter 3 of the 'Effective Video Storytelling for Researchers' series
Copyright videos for Visualise Your Thesis Programme
Keeping your entry copyright compliant*
An Introduction to Copyright for Visualise Your ThesisTM Programme.
Seeking Permissions*
Using copyright materials for Visualise Your ThesisTM Programme.
Accessing expired copyright materials*
Using public domain works for Visualise Your ThesisTM Programme.
Protecting your copyright materials*
Using your own materials for Visualise Your ThesisTM Programme
* While we endeavour to ensure that all content published in these Visualise Your Thesis videos is correct at the time of publishing, we make no warranty about the accuracy, completeness or reliability of this content. The information provided here is general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice.
View Past Videos
The programme submissions were judged on visual impact: how well they presented their research projects as short, engaging, digital narratives. The participants from a variety of disciplines used multi-media, interactivity and their creativity to take the ‘classic conference poster’ to the next level.
VIEW 2022 INTERNATIONAL GALLERY
VIEW 2021 INTERNATIONAL GALLERY
VIEW 2020 INTERNATIONAL GALLERY