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 - AnĂ© 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

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.

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.