Pippa Sommerville
The annual Unitec Three Minute Thesis (3MT) thesis competition took place earlier this month and was won by Pippa Sommerville, Master of Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture. The runners-up were Naziba Marzan (Master of Applied Business, School of Applied Business), and Yue Sun (Master of Architecture (Professional), School of Architecture).
Pippa’s winning presentation was: “How will zero carbon living impact the design of urban public space?”
Naziba Marzan
Runner-up Naziba presented “Understanding the challenges of female migrant workers in New Zealand”, and Yue Sun “A Day Along the River.”
The 3MT competition requires presenters to explain their research project in terms accessible to a lay audience in exactly three minutes. All Unitec’s Master’s students are eligible to participate and this year’s presenters came from five programmes, Masters of: Professional Accounting, Applied Business, Landscape Architecture, Architecture Professional, and Computing.
“A three-minute thesis presentation is no easy task, says Marcus Williams, Director Research and Enterprise.
Yue Sun
“The aim is to teach students to communicate their thesis projects in a dynamic and concise manner. It is a terrific skill to develop for a range of contexts, involving the ability to concisely articulate complexity, hold the attention of a listener and speak confidently in public. They are judged on the presentation and on the accessibility of their narrative, communication, engagement and comprehension.
“As always, says Marcus, the projects covered a wide range of subjects and many of the student’s supervisors were present and were acknowledged by the MC as integral partners in the development of research capability and the research project itself in this level of study. Supervisors and students often go on to co-publish research from these projects.”
The presentations were judged by Annette Pitovao, Director Student Success Poutama Angitu (Head Judge), Associate Professor Evangelia Papoutsaki, and Gregor Steinhorn, Research Partner Enterprise
Great work everyone!