QUT Graduate Research Student Showcase 2025 (3MT Grand Finals)

QUT Graduate Research Student Showcase (3MT®)

QUT's Graduate Research Education and Development (GRE+D) is hosting the QUT Graduate Research Student Showcase on Thursday 11 September 2025. Please join us as we celebrate QUT's graduate research (PhD, MPhil, and Professional Doctorate) student talent with the QUT Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Grand Finals.

About Three Minute Thesis (3MT)

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is an international competition which cultivates graduate students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. Graduate researchers have just 3 minutes to explain their research and its significance in a compelling speech. 3MT challenges graduate researchers to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries so they can be presented concisely to a non-specialist audience.

This event is sponsored by QUT's Silver Sponsor UniSuper.

The QUT 3MT® Grand Final will bring together finalists representing each of QUT's faculties and wildcard winners:

Akash Hettiarachchi, Faculty of Business and Law

Cobots for Diversity: The Future of Australian Manufacturing

My research investigates how Collaborative Robots (Cobots) can address diversity barriers in manufacturing by fostering safer and more flexible work environments that attract and retain underrepresented talent in the Industry 4.0 era.

Alexandra Tutkaluk, Faculty of Creative Industries Education and Social Justice

Designing inclusive digital spaces for people with alcohol and other drug challenges

My research explores the experiences and challenges of people seeking online support for alcohol and other drugs, working towards a new design resource to assist industry in creative more inclusive digital healthcare products.

Danielle Villoresi, Faculty of Health

From Purpose to Post: Understanding What Drives Self-image and Compassionate Goals on Social Media

This research reveals how our self-perceptions can drive us toward either compassion or self-focused goals when using social media, providing essential knowledge for transforming online experiences.

Emmanuwelge Madhurangi Perera, Faculty of Health

Enabling home-based supportive care in heart failure

Enabling home-based supportive care in heart failure: What matters to people with heart failure and their carers?

Jacob Dawson, Faculty of Engineering

Climate informed, robot enabled, clay brick building envelopes

I’m using robots and climate science to reinvent brickwork; creating beautiful, climate informed walls that cut bills, fight heat, and transform how we build, helping shape the next era of architecture that’s smarter, bolder, and more creative.

Jayamini Bimali Koongolla, Faculty of Science

Breaking the Unbreakable: A Fight Against “Forever Chemicals”

My research reveals that light-activated materials can effectively trap and destroy toxic “forever chemicals” in water, transforming a persistent pollution problem into a clean water solution.

Megan Winsen, Faculty of Science

Remote sensing data integration for wildlife population models

Protecting the world’s vulnerable wildlife is harder than you think, which is why I’m combining advanced data collection technologies with artificial intelligence and mathematical modelling, to deliver faster and better information to our decision makers.

Nidhi Parayil, Faculty of Engineering

Feeling through foliage: Teaching robots to interact with plants

Robots that feel their way through crops, lending farmers a helping hand

Event Details

The event will be held in person at E Block, Kelvin Grove campus, with a Zoom option available for those who are unable to attend in person.