• Six PhD students will compete in the Charles Sturt Three-Minute Thesis final on Wednesday 1 July
• The 3MT competition challenges students to describe their PhD study in three minutes and will take virtual format for the first time this year
• The winning student will receive a $1,000 grant and represent Charles Sturt at the Asia-Pacific 3MT Final

The Charles Sturt University finals for the annual Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for PhD students will be held online for the first time.

Six of the University’s PhD students have signed up for the challenge of presenting their 80,000-word thesis to members of the public 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.

This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Charles Sturt finals will take a new virtual format for the first time in the competition’s history.

The Vice-Chancellor's Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging Professor Stan Grant Jnr will emcee the event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Manager of Graduate Studies in the Research Office Mr Paul Shaw said the University is looking forward to hosting its first digital version of the 3MT competition and hopes the new format allows for an even bigger audience.

“The 3MT competition is a valuable opportunity for our PhD students to exhibit some of the diverse and innovative studies being conducted at the University,” Mr Shaw said.

“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 Charles Sturt 3MT finalists and their topics are:

• Mr Mitchell Kunnen – Faculty of Science – ‘Determining psychological readiness after ACL injury’. He is based at the Bathurst campus and hails from Orange.
• Ms Mandy Cooke – Faculty of Arts and Education – ‘It’s not just physical: Understanding risk-taking in early childhood education’. She is an online student based in Anglesea, Victoria.
• Ms Tabita Tan – Faculty of Science – ‘Saving the goats: Why we need an outbreak response plan for Q fever’. She is based at the Wagga Wagga campus and hails from Melbourne.
• Ms Debra Metcalf – Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Science – ‘Understanding consumer perceptions of novel foods using hemp food as an exemplar'. She is based at the Wagga Wagga campus and hails from Narrandera.
• Mr Johnathan Hewis – Faculty of Science – ‘Surviving the tunnel: The lived experience of distress in Magnetic Resonance Imaging’. He is based at the Port Macquarie campus.
• Ms Jennifer Schwarz – Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Science – ‘Understanding and supporting adults who ask ‘Am I Autistic?’. She is based at the Wagga Wagga campus.

The competition is on Wednesday 1 July from 4pm to 6pm. Members of the public watch the competition via Zoom.

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 Thursday 1 October.

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 over 900 universities across more than 85 countries worldwide.