3 – minute thesis runner – by Courtney Weber

When I heard that the 3MT entries had opened, I was excited. The 3MT was something that i knew about even before I started my PhD (in 2018!). But, being a typical university student, I had totally forgotten about it until there was 2 weeks before the entry was due. I put my heart and soul to work, and started to create an at least vaguely entertaining story that encapsulated all things cardiovascular, statistical, and data-linkage based. Turn out, this was hard work. To make my research engaging, I needed to approach this talk from a completely different angle. I didn’t know anyone in the School of population and global health, where my research resides, that had previously done this competition. I had very limited examples that I could build from. So, I discussed my ideas with my partner, family members, supervisors’ and friends. About 1 week before I had to submit my video, I had two different storylines that I just could not decide upon. One was entertaining and engaging, but did not cover all the content that I wanted to. The other was more technically correct, but just wasn’t as engaging as my first idea. I recorded both ideas on my phone. 24 hours before I had to submit my video, I still hadn’t made a decision about what I should do.

And that was when I realised. There was no way I could cover everything in my PhD. But creating an idea about how the symptoms of falling in love are just like some of the symptoms of atrial fibrillation and heart failure, the two conditions I research within my PhD, was an idea I had to go with. Even though I turned some cardiologists in their grave, as falling in love is very much not like heart disease, it was entertaining and successfully communicated what my research was about. So I submitted that video.

To say I was beyond joyous when the email popped up in my inbox, saying I was a finalist, is an understatement. My poor friends and family had to deal with my non-stop talking about, every day until

the final’s night. On the 10th September, I arrived at the lecture theatre 3 hours early. I spent that time standing at the front of the stage, to take in what I was about to do. By the time the event started, and after listening to so many interesting projects and research questions, I was ready.

I cannot tell you how my talk went. When I am nervous, and in front of people, My short term memory stops working all together. I do not remember being on stage (but theres a video so I definitely did do it) What I do remember is feeling incredibly proud of myself for having a go. I could have walked home right then and would’ve been extremely happy. To then be chosen for the TEDxUWA award and runner up overall was a wonderful addition.

The thing is, this competition is not about awards, or winning. The experience you gain, and the ability to explain your PhD to anyone is more than enough motivation to participate. The guidance from Krystyna Haq and Lily Newbury-Freeman was beyond helpful in building my ability in public speaking and confidence in my ideas.

My favourite moment of the whole competition? Finally having an answer to that age-old question, “so what is your research about and when are you going to finish? I may not know when I’m going to submit my PhD, but I can now explain it everyone without boring them to death.