The Visualise Your Thesis (VYT) Competition challenges graduate researchers to “present their research in a 60 second, eye-catching digital display”.

2021 is the third year of the International VYT Competition, with the winners of 25 local competitions competing in an online International final for a first prize of $5,000, second prize of $2,000 and third prize of $1,000.

The aim of the VYT competition is to help graduate researchers develop digital communication skills to convey their complex research to a general audience. Using a template, entrants are asked to develop a looped presentation that captures their research as a short, engaging, digital narrative.

The resources provided to students not only help them with effective video storytelling but provide lots of information on copyright – how to protect their own copyright but also how to keep their entries copyright compliant and how to seek the appropriate permissions to use someone else’s copyright. Handy skills to have in our digital age.

Additionally, graduate researchers not only learn how to produce a useful research ‘output’, but learn how to promote their research and develop their online profile. Students must create an ORCID iD as part of the VYT competition process, learn how to upload their video output to the Figshare repository and track their online engagement. These are critical skills for enabling the translation of research to ensure research has impact beyond academia.

All finalists’ entries remain available to the public via the Figshare Repository which means they’re discoverable, citeable, shareable and downloadable. This year during the competition the finalists’ entries had a combined count of 34,486 views!

You can view all 25 of the 2021 finalists here.

From understanding the linguistic features of architecture student and practioner’s writing to improve communication, to development of new materials for next gen solid state batteries, how we might use hover flies to pollinate crops, or understanding dating violence in young Australian women – the videos produced demonstrate the important research being conducted by our graduate researchers.

The ACGR congratulates the winners of the 2021 competition, which were announced on Thursday, 14 October, at the eResearch Australasia online conference.

THE WINNERS WERE:

• 1^st place – Krystal Campbell, University of Technology Sydney

The Experiences of Australian First in Family University Students and Graduates: An Intergenerational and Intersectional Exploration

• 2^nd place – Hannah Petocz, La Trobe University

“Wondering If I Was the Problem”: The Unique Nature, Perpetuation, and Impact of Dating Violence on Young Australian Women

• 3^rd place –  Ratanapat Suchat, Swinburne University

Brand Nostaglia: The Emotional Responses of Thai Students Studying in Australia to Thai Condiment Packaging

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

• YC Lin, Australian National University

Understanding Piezo, a force-sensing molecular machine

TRENDING ON VYT COMPETITION:

The entry with the most views as recorded on figshare with 16,398 views in the trending period was:

• Md Eaysir Arafat, QUT

Effectiveness of Interventions for Mobile Phone Distracted Pedestrians

Missed last year’s winners?

To catch up on the 2020 winners, see our summary here.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash