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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

Faculty of Health Sciences celebrates various successes
2015-01-12

The Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State achieved a number of successes in the course of 2014. This included awards, presentations and keynote addresses at conferences, as well as publications in various journals.

Some of the highlights are:

• Dr Madelein Koning from the Department of Internal Medicine received the Vice-Chancellor’s award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning during November. Prof Alan St Claire Gibson said the award is richly deserved, given Dr Koning’s many years of high-quality teaching and input to particularly the fifth-year MB ChB students.

• Prof Schalk Wentzel, Head of the Department of Urology, was elected President of the South African College of Urology, and Prof Alicia Sherriff from the Department of Oncology was elected President of the South African College of Oncology.  Prof William Rae was appointed to the College of Radiologists. These are the highest and most prestigious offices an academic clinician can hold or be elected to in the specialty of their choice. Prof Rae also published an article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. 

• Prof Nats Mofolo, Head of the Department of Family Medicine, gave a keynote address at the Free State Health Indaba hosted by the Free State Department of Health.

• Dr Holtzhausen from the Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine chaired and delivered a presentation at the 6th Clinical Sport and Exercise Medicine Conference of SA held in Cape Town from 22 to 24 October 2014. He was also the convener of the conference. His presentation was titled ‘Safer exercise in apparently healthy individuals and those with possible risk factors for chronic disease and injury’.

 

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