Postgraduate researchers excel at Doctoral College Showcase

On 9-10 June 2021, 45 postgraduate research students participated in the Doctoral College Showcase. The new Showcase, held online, was opened by the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Professor David Mba, and featured a variety of events where research students could present their research to a non-specialist audience in different formats.

The programme consisted of podcasts (which you can access here), oral presentations, performance-based presentations, poster presentations and the DMU 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) final. 

For each event, judges were invited to review the presentations and determine who delivered outstanding presentations. A key criterion across all presentations was the ability of the researcher to communicate their research to non-specialists and demonstrate their passion for their subject.

The winners, listed below, were announced at a short online awards reception on 10 June, hosted by the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor Research, Professor Deborah Cartmell:

• Judges’ Choice for Excellent Presentation:

- Winner: Leah MacGregor, Investigating the Cerebellar Potassium Channel Mechanisms of Schizophrenia (HLS)

- Runner-up: Josef Toon, The cursor captures competing words: examining word connections within the brain (HLS)

• Judges’ Choice for Excellent Performance-based Presentation:

- Winner: Sophie Swoffer, It’s Us (ADH)

• Podcast Challenge:

Overall winner: Jane Hearst, The Arts-for-Health Podcast (ADH)

- Runner-up: Jennifer Wilkinson, Functional Skills Students in Leicester- (ADH)

• Poster Category:

- Overall winner: Ngosa Kambashi, A Mixed Methods Study of Professionals’, Survivors’, and Community Perceptions of Male Rape (HLS)

- Runner-up:  Liz Felton, Preserving human uncertainty in digitised mood representations  (CEM)

• 3MT:

- Overall winner: Dennis Mc Call Jr, You can put the blame on me (BAL)

- Runner-up: Rose Teanby, Early Women Photographers and their Hidden History (ADH)

The 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) Final closed the Doctoral College Showcase, featuring 12 presentations delivered by research degree students who succeeded at their Faculty heats that took place in February and March 2021. The 3 Minute Thesis overall winner, Dennis Mc Call Jr, will go on to represent De Montfort University at the UK National Semi-Finals hosted by Vitae. A full recording of the 3 Minute Thesis Final can be found here.

Professor Anwar Baydoun, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation for Health and Life Sciences said “Really enjoyable sessions and it was extremely inspiring to see the level of commitment and enthusiasm demonstrated by our students towards their research.”