[Music]
 
 
 
[Applause] Welcome everyone to Bristol's first
Three Minute Thesis Competition. The Three
Minute Thesis was created by the University
of Queensland in Australia in 2007 and since
that time it has taken over the world. Basically,
the Three Minute Thesis has been designed
to challenge doctoral researchers to present
a compelling spoken presentation of their
research topic and its significance in just
three minutes in language that we can all understand. [Applause]
'I think this is an amazing competition
and it boosts the confidence of PhD students
and it promotes university so I would recommend
to everyone to try doing it, to make sure
that their research is heard and relevant.'
Did you know that cigarettes are the only
product which, when used as the manufacturer
intends, kills every other user. 'This competition
boosts our humble PhD souls' confidence, but
also it promotes our research and it shows
that what we are doing in the labs using experimental
techniques is very relevant for everyone in
this society, whether it is tobacco packaging,
toilet visits, or alzheimers, you know, solar energy,
all of those things are very, very relevant
to everyone here and to hear all about that
is amazing but we normally don't promote it
as such, so this is a great opportunity for
us to come outside from our labs and talk
about it.' ...in the UK it is a huge problem...
'My name is Sally Heslop and I'm the Academic
Director of the Bristol Doctoral College,
so it was very important for me to be here
today at the final of this competition to
watch our students presenting their work.
An event like this is really important for
us because it's an opportunity for our students
to showcase not only their research and the
valuable work their doing, but also how good
they are at presenting that work to a very
varied audience, because those kinds of communication
skills are very important for today's researchers
and they have to be able to convey the importance
and impact of what they're doing.' ...the
aim of my PhD is to apply this concept to
a structural feature of an aircraft... 
'My name is Kate Nobes and I was chair of the
judging panel today for this Three Minute
Thesis Competition. I can speak on behalf
of all panel members to say that this was
an outstanding competition. The quality of
presentations was fantastic. I think what's
unique about this competition is that it's
very rare to have an opportunity to hear about
research from across the University, explained
in, you know, a very accessible way, and I
thought the students did a fantastic job and
I look forward to the competition next year.'
[Applause] ...And in first place, winning
the latest generation iPad, 
is Dominika! [Applause]
'This is a fantastic day. It was a lovely
event and ten people presented fantastic research
from all over the University, and I'm very
lucky to be winning this, but really everybody
was a winner, because everybody's story is
amazing and it makes me feel proud that I'm
at the University where such cool research
is taking place.'
