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13 August 2020 | Story Andre Damons
Follow these three easy steps to enter the Three-Minute Thesis Competition. Will you be this year’s winner?

 

The Three-Minute Thesis Competition, also known as the ‘3MT’, is an annual competition held at 200 universities around the world. It is open to PhD and master’s students, and challenges participants to present their research in just 180 seconds – in a way that is understood by an audience with no background in the research area. 


The UFS Postgraduate School was the first to bring the ‘Three-Minute Thesis’ (3MT) competition to Africa. The Three-Minute Thesis competition originates from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has now become an annual event at the UFS.

The competition aims to help participants develop presentation, research, and academic communication skills, as well as to support the development of research students’ ability to effectively explain their work. 
Although our country is in the midst of a pandemic, the annual competition continues. This year’s Three-Minute Thesis competition will be hosted online at
- The competition will first be hosted at the faculty level; faculty entries close at 14 August 2020

- Winners at faculty level will compete against each other at the Institutional level on 9 October 2020 and will stand a chance at winning these awesome cash prizes

UFS INSTITUTIONAL PRIZES FOR 2020 ARE:

Position Prizes 2020
Master’s winner R6 000
Master’s 1st runner-up R4 000
Master’s 2nd runner-up R2 000
PhD winner  R8 000
PhD 1st runner-up R6 000
PhD 2nd runner-up R4 000

 

Institutional winners will compete against other universities at the national level on 6 November 2020.


News Archive

Heart-valve studies receive international recognition
2017-07-11

 Description: Heart-valve studies  Tags: Heart-valve studies  

Prof Francis Smit, Head of the Department of
Cardiothoracic Surgery at the UFS, and Manager of the
Robert WM Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre, with
Kyle Davis, Mechanical Engineer at the centre.

Photo: Rulanzen Martin

Three heart-valve studies which have been developed at the Robert WM Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre at the School of Medicine at the University of the Free State (UFS) were recently presented in Monte Carlo at the conference of the prestigious global Heart Valve Society (HVS).

These studies are all headed by Prof Francis Smit, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the UFS, and Manager of the Robert WM Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre.
Prof Smit says the HVS is a combination of the former heart-valve societies of Europe and the US. “Studies on heart-valve disease, heart-valve-related products and operations, as well as the design and development of new valves were presented. There are both clinical and development divisions.

He says the study in which the hemodynamics of their redesigned mechanical poppet valve was compared to a commercial bi-leaflet mechanical heart valve, was named as the best poster presentation in the experimental valve development and numerical flow dynamics division. The study, which was presented by Kyle Davis, mechanical engineer at the centre, competed against some of the best heart-valve research units in the world.

The redesigned valve, based on the 1960s Cape Town poppet valve, has the potential to provide a low-cost solution for mechanical heart-valve replacement. It is possible to produce the titanium ring with 3-D printers and is, together with the silicon poppet valve, extremely inexpensive compared to current mechanical valve-manufacturing processes.
The advantages of this valve over current mechanical valves is that, due to the effective and laminar flow characteristics, as well as the simple locking mechanisms, there is a reduced chance of valve thrombosis, and the need for anti-clotting drugs is therefore limited.

It was also confirmed that the new valve more than meets the published FDA (Federal Drug Agency) requirements, which determine the minimum standards of valves for human use in the US.

The redesigned valve also has a very low platelet activation impact, which is responsible for platelet thrombosis and leads to valve thrombosis or strokes. This valve is another heart-valve project by the centre, which is also in the process of evaluating a tri-leaflet polyurethane valve developed by them.


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