Visualise Your Thesis™

Entries

The winning entries from each institution are available to view on the international Visualise Your Thesis Figshare site.

Check out the amazing entries from this years programme on Figshare.

View entries here

Awards

We are pleased to announce the winners of Visualise Your Thesis 2024!

The first, second, and third placed winners as selected by the 2024 judges:

First place: recipient of AUD $5,000 prize

Nikki Huang, Managing Rumination and Worry: A Digital Program Targeting Repetitive Negative Thinking in Early Adolescence, UNSW

Second place: recipient of AUD $2,000 prize

Sabrina McKenzie, Cultivating Self-Compassion through Music Listening, University of Melbourne

Third place: recipient of AUD $1,000 prize

Adele Pentland, Pterosaurs from the Early to mid-Cretaceous of Australia, Curtin University

Trending on VYT: Trending on VYT recognised the entrant who achieved the highest number of views for their video on the VYT Figshare repository between 16 October - 22 October 2023. The Trending on VYT winner won a 1-year Gold Membership to the Research Impact Academy, providing them training and consulting to further develop their research communication skills.

Our Judges for 2024

We're excited to announce the three incredible judges of this year's international Visualise Your Thesis programme!

Jodie Haigh

Jodie Haigh is a trained scientist and communications professional with diverse experience across international, intergovernmental and not-for-profit organisations spanning science and research. She has created communications content in complex environments, including as the Communications Manager of Science & Technology Australia – the nation's peak body in science and technology, which represents more than 235,000 scientists, engineers and technologists. Additionally, she is the Vice President and Treasurer of the Australian Science Communicators – a national network for science communicators and science journalists in Australia. Previously, she developed and led the social media strategy for a multinational European life sciences research institute and ran a science news website for a global scientific publisher.

Dr Kennedy Mbeva

Kennedy Mbeva (PhD) is a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. His current research focuses on the governance of global catastrophic risk. Dr Mbeva has contributed to high-profile UN reports such as the IPCC AR6 and the Adaptation Gap Report and served on Kenya’s delegation to the UN Climate Change negotiations. A Kenyan national, he holds a PhD in International Relations (distinction) from the University of Melbourne and has studied and worked in Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Saskia Walcott

Saskia has worked in the UK higher education sector and with research and researchers for 20 years. She was Head of Communications and Public Engagement for the Economic and Social Research Council from 2003 - 2010 and is now recognised as one of the UK’s most eminent research impact practitioners. Saskia became an independent consultant in 2010 and has trained and mentored 100s of academics on how to embed impact in their work and worked with universities to develop their research impact strategies and plans. She has assisted with the development of 100s of REF impact case studies during REF 2014 and REF 2021 across units of assessment spanning all 4 main panels. Clients include universities in the UK, Europe, South East Asia and Australia. Saskia has also held in-house university positions: she was the interim Director of Strategic Engagement at UWE Bristol in 2017-2018 and Research Impact Manager at the University of Bath between 2014 and 2015.

Sponsors

The International Visualise Your Thesis repository is powered by Figshare. Figshare also sponsor 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.

Twenty-three institutions from five countries hosted a local Visualise Your Thesis programme, with their winners proceeding to the 2023 international programme. All of the submitted entries can be viewed on the Visualise Your Thesis figshare, a publicly available repository.

The entries were judged by:

• Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles MNZM: Head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, and awarded science communicator.
• Dr David Phipps: Assistant Vice-President, Research & Impact at York University, Canada, and global leader in research impact.

Read more about the 2023 judges here.

The winners were announced online, and in-person at the eResearch Australasia conference in Brisbane, Australia, on 18 October 2023.

2023 VYT International programme winners

First place: recipient of AUD $5,000 prize
Tegan Clark, It’s Dusty Down Under, Australian National University

Second place: recipient of AUD $2,000 prize
Kate Revell, Year 7/8 Student Engagement in Performing-Arts, University of Canterbury

Third place: recipient of AUD $1,000 prize
Tara Crandon, “Weathering the Storm”: Understanding Climate Anxiety and Coping in Young People, The University of Queensland

The judges also awarded a highly commended entry to Christopher Hall, Platform Journalism: Law & Society, University of Technology Sydney.

Trending on VYT recognised the entrant who achieved the highest number of views for their video on the VYT Figshare repository between 02 October - 06 October 2023. The Trending on VYT winner won a 1-year Gold Membership to the Research Impact Academy, providing them training and consulting to further develop their research communication skills.

The winner of Trending on VYT in 2023 was Tara Crandon, “Weathering the Storm”: Understanding Climate Anxiety and Coping in Young People, The University of Queensland

Twenty-two institutions from five countries participated in the fourth international programme. All of the entries are available to view on the Visualise Your Thesis Figshare repository, showcasing the great work of the graduate researchers who won their institution's local programme to progress to the international programme.

The entries were judged by:

• Dr Katy Peplin: creator of Thrive PhD, a community and coaching service for graduate researchers;
• Cr Davydd Griffiths, lead for the City of Melbourne's Education and Innovation portfolio; and
• Dr Eva Méndez, researcher at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, and 'open knowledge militant.'

Read more about the judges here.

The award winners were announced online, and in person, at the eResearch Australasia conference on 19 October 2022.

2022 Winners

First place: prize of AUD $5,000
Drew Min Su Cylinder, Neural Correlates of Behavioural Changes During Propofol General Anaesthesia in Caenorhabditis Elegans, the University of Queensland.

Second place: prize of AUD $2,000 
Freya Muir, New Quest: Protect Our Beaches from Climate Change!, the University of Glasgow.

Third place: prize of AUD $1,000
Samuel Widodo, Switching cancer-promoting macrophages to fight brain cancer, the University of Melbourne.

Trending on VYT, the Visualise Your Thesis Viewers' Choice, recognised the entrant who achieved the highest number of views for their video on the VYT Figshare repository between 03-09 October 2022.  The Trending on VYT winner won a 1-year Gold Membership to the Research Impact Academy, sponsored by Figshare, providing them training and consulting to further develop their research communication skills.

The winner of Trending on VYT in 2023 was Drew Min Su Cylinder, Neural Correlates of Behavioural Changes During Propofol General Anaesthesia in Caenorhabditis Elegans, the University of Queensland.

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:

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.

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.

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}

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}

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}

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.

• 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

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.

The programme has concluded and these materials are no longer available.

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.

Please contact us via visualise-thesis@unimelb.edu.au for further information.

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.