Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
29 August 2018 Photo Barend Nagel
Think three minutes is a long time
One slide and three minutes was all they had to present their research. Winners of the UFS Three-Minute Thesis competition in the Master’s category are from left: Nigel Masalla, Phuthi Samuel Masingi and Vuyisa Sigwela. Home page photo: Winners in the PhD Category were Trudie Strauss and Nokuthula Tlalajoe.
It may take three minutes to make noodles, but imagine presenting the 80 000-word research you spent months writing in just three minutes.

For master’s and PhD students participating in the annual institutional Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at the University of the Free State (UFS), three minutes seem to go as fast as three seconds. Each participant is given three minutes to present the essence of their research, explaining the problem, methodology used, as well as the importance of their research using one slide.

A jubilant audience of staff members and students gathered at the Equitas Auditorium on the Bloemfontein Campus for the annual institutional 3MT competition. Interesting research topics across different fields of study, which the participants had spent months and even years researching, were presented in the master’s and PhD categories. After each presentation, a panel of judges and the audience had the chance to ask the participants questions on their research.

The competition is part of the initiative by the UFS Postgraduate School to showcase postgraduate research across disciplines, faculties, and universities. Participation in this competition helps to develop academic, presentation, and research communication skills to ensure that research students can effectively communicate their research in a language that even non-specialists can understand. 

It is the mandate of the school to “create an enabling environment for postgraduate students to excel in their pursuit of their academic quests”, according to Prof Witness Mudzi: Director of the UFS Postgraduate School. 

Winners at the event:

PhDs
• Third prize: Trudie Strauss - Babelish Confusion: Finding Statistical Structure in the Diversity of Languages (R3 000 cash prize)
• People’s choice: Nokuthula Tlalajoe - The transition of undergraduate first-year students into the MBChB programme: Social learning and integration

Master’s
• First prize: Phuthi Samuel Masingi   Physical demands of South African Football (R6 000 cash prize)
• Second prize and people’s choice: Nigel Masalla   “ Stealthing” – lifting the veil on non-consensual condom removal (R4 000 cash prize)
• Third prize: Vuyisa Sigwela - Extraction, characterisation and application of betalains from beetroot, cactus pear and amaranth (R2 000 cash prize)

The UFS will be represented by Trudie Strauss at the national 3MT competition on 26 October 2018. The national competition will take place on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus

News Archive

Nguni project flourishes
2008-08-28

 

The Board of Trustees of the Northern Cape IDC Nguni Cattle Development Project recently held a meeting on the Main Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein. The UFS, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform in the Northern Cape are involved with this project, which aims to develop first-time farmers into Nguni stud farmers. The project started in June 2006 and to date 11 groups of farmers have been provided with cattle and seven groups will soon be receiving their cattle. These new farmers are spread across the vast expanse of the Northern Cape - from the Botswana border in the north to Noupoort in the south. Because of its success, funding for the project has also increased dramatically. This money is used for a health programme for the cattle, to buy registered pregnant Nguni heifers and bulls and to provide some limited infrastructure on the farms. The Department of Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences at the UFS is involved with the training of the farmers. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees were, from the left: Ms Jacqui Maisela, Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and Chief Director: Agricultural Development Services of the Northern Cape Department of Agriculture and Land Reform, Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS, and Mr Tommy Mohajane, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees.
Foto: Lacea Loader

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept