Overview
Videos of Candidates and Awardees
Members of the public, colleagues and students are cordially invited to vote for the most engaging presenter for the Online People’s Choice Award via YouTube until 1800hrs, June 5, 2012. You can vote for any one of the finalists below. The finalist with the most ‘LIKE’ votes on YouTube will be awarded a book voucher of US$100.
Candidate No. 9
Candidate No. 11
Candidate No. 13
Candidate No. 14
Candidate No. 18
Candidate No. 22
Candidate No. 30
News in Brief
The Three Minute Thesis (3MTTM) Competition of HKU was successfully held on May 29, 2012. This year 28 research postgraduate (RPg) students participated in the Competition, and 12 finalists were shortlisted to compete for 3 prizes decided by the adjudicating panel and the People’s Choice Award decided by audience ballot. A new award, namely the Online People’s Choice Award, has been introduced this year to promote the 3MT concept to young researchers and the public. The finalist with the most ‘LIKE’ votes on YouTube would receive this award.
The HKU 3MT champion will have the chance to represent HKU at the Trans-Tasman 3MT Competition hosted by The University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane on October 11, 2012.
Developed by UQ, Australia, 3MT is an academic competition that challenges RPg students to explain their research within 3 minutes to a general audience. 3MT celebrates the discoveries made by RPg students and encourages them to develop the skills to communicate the importance of their research to the broader community.
We were honoured to have Dr York Liao and Mr Kai-man Wong, HKU Council Members, serving on the adjudicating panel as external members. Internal members of the adjudicating panel included Professor John Bacon-Shone, Associate Director of the Knowledge Exchange Office (KEO), and Professor Paul Cheung, Director of the Technology Transfer Office, who served as co-chairmen, and Professor Ying Chan, Director of Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC), Professor Nirmala Rao, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor Ben Young, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School.
Congratulations to all the winners of the HKU 3MT Competition 2012. They are:
Champion (awarded research travel support or book prize of HK$7,000); and
People’s Choice Award Winner (awarded research travel support or book prize of HK$3,000)
Name: Mr Pun Tung NG
Degree Registered: PhD
Faculty: Science
Title of Presentation: Sexual Selection in Snails
Primary Supervisor: Prof. Gray A. Williams
1st Runner-up (awarded research travel support or book prize of HK$5,000)
Name: Mr Wenkai ZHU
Degree Registered: PhD
Faculty: Engineering
Title of Presentation: Performance Optimisation of Mobile Robots
Primary Supervisor: Dr S. H. Choi
2nd Runner-up (awarded research travel support or book prize of HK$3,000)
Name: Mr Ricky Van Yip TSO
Degree Registered: MPhil
Faculty: Social Sciences
Title of Presentation: Writing Experience Changes Our Visual Perception: The Case of Chinese Character Recognition
Primary Supervisor: Dr Janet Hsiao
Online People’s Choice Award Winner (awarded book voucher of USD100)
Name: Ms Yingying ZHANG
Degree Registered: PhD
Faculty: Medicine
Title of Presentation: Functional Ion Channels in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Cardiac Progenitor Cells
Primary Supervisor: Dr Li Guirong
In their closing remarks, Dr York Liao, Mr Kai-man Wong and Professor Ying Chan said that the quality of the research presented by the students was impressive. Professor John Bacon-Shone hopes that the participants this year would encourage their fellow students in the junior year to participate in the Competition next year.
“As researchers, it is our responsibility to make our research readily understood by society. The experience of this competition will be valuable to all the student participants as well as their supervisors,” Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Paul Tam says.
The HKU 3MT Competition was jointly organized by the Graduate School and the Knowledge Exchange Office. The support of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre in event production is deeply appreciated.
Awardees and finalists of the HKU 3MT Competition 2012 with Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Paul Tam and members of the adjudicating panel
(From left, back row) Dr York Liao (HKU Council Member), Professor Nirmala Rao (Associate Dean of the Graduate School), Ms Zoe Wing Yee Tam (Finalist), Ms Yingying Zhang (Finalist), Ms To Kam Lam (Finalist), Professor Ying Chan (Director of JMSC), Mr Kai-man Wong (HKU Council Member), Professor John Bacon-Shone (Associate Director of KEO), Ms Li Zhang (Finalist), Ms Huijun Wu (Finalist), Ms Junyuan Li (Finalist)
(From left, front row) Mr Ricky Van Yip Tso (2nd Runner-up), Mr Wenkai Zhu (1stRunner-up), Mr Pun Tung Ng (the Champion and the winner of the People’s Choice Award), Professor Paul Tam (Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President [Research]), Professor Ben Young (Assistant Dean of the Graduate School), Ms Clara Hiu Ling Hung (Finalist), Mrs Thanuja Darshani Kumari Herath (Finalist)
2012 Trans-Tasman 3MT Competition
The 2012 Trans-Tasman 3MT Competition was held on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at The University of Queensland (UQ), Brisbane. 43 universities representing more than 50,000 PhD and Masters students in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hong Kong competed in this competition.
The HKU 3MT 2012 Champion, Mr Ng Pun Tung, PhD candidate in the Faculty of Science, represented HKU in the 2012 Trans-Tasman 3MT Competition.