The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition is an annual event that enables UniSA PhD candidates to develop a range of research and career related capabilities. UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences PhD candidate, Cintya Dharmayanti, describes her experience and the development (and other) benefits she gained participating in the 3MT.
Cintya Dharmayanti studies ways to improve ovarian cancer treatment and is also highly interested in making science more accessible. As a result, she has been awarded grants and many awards at conference presentations. Cintya highlighted that participating in the 3MT helped her to think about her PhD in a different way.
"I had a really great experience doing the 3MT. I was always kind of interested in science communication. But that was really the catalyst, I think, that made me realise that there were so many opportunities kind of down that path that I didn't necessarily think of before. And it was just a really great way to help me kind of distill down my work into something that is palatable to a broader audience."
Cintya participated and won the competition when she was in the second year of her PhD. Cintya believes that the experience enhanced her communication skills and made her more confident about her research. She says "Before doing the 3MT, I didn't love public speaking. And doing the 3MT it kind of forces you to and I got really outside of my comfort zone, but I think it really helped me become familiar with becoming more confident."
She also said that it gave more visibility to her research, as she shared her video with partners. After winning the competition, Cintya became more interested in science communication and is also considering doing an internship in the science communication industry.
Cintya reflects on the opportunities she had after participating in the 3MT, and she strongly recommends to HDR candidates "If you're on the fence about it, just do it, because it will help you in so many ways, ways that you probably wouldn't have even imagined. And, it's not even about winning. You get to learn so many skills in terms of communication and public speaking, and not talking in jargony terms. But also, I think you have the confidence you get from it afterwards because you just become more familiar with your project and how it fits with the rest of the science going on in the world."
Find out more about the 3MT Competition at UniSA here. Want to develop your research communication skills? Find out what development opportunities are available through EDGEx.