Postgraduate Summer Research Showcase
Published on 12 June 15
Friday 5th June 2015 saw over 500 students and staff gather in the beautiful Whitworth Hall to celebrate the University's second Postgraduate Summer Research Showcase (PSRS). The whole day was a spectacle of postgraduate research from across the University including posters, images and short-films, concluding with the annual Manchester Doctoral College Excellence Awards. PhD student Parmesh Gajjar sent us this report:
More than 200 postgraduate students from across the four different Faculties of the University presented their research through posters, creating a vibrant and dynamic interdisciplinary environment where ideas were freely discussed. The posters were grouped by key-words, which meant that students from Engineering and Physical Sciences who were studying chemical engineering could be placed next to students in Life Sciences who were also studying the same topic but from a different perspective. Students themselves appreciated this unique opportunity to meet and converse with fellow students who may be studying similar subjects in different parts of the University. As Christian Thomas, a student in the School of Pharmacy commented: “Being able to have conversations with people from Chemistry or Life Sciences has been really positive.”
The discussions produced a wonderful atmosphere, and all of the 75 staff members who assisted with judging the posters were thoroughly impressed with both the knowledge and the enthusiasm of the all the presenters. “The quality really was exceptionally good, even for first-year students”, said Professor David Foster of the school of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The judges were equally impressed with the ability of the researchers to explain things in an accessible manner. “I'm not an academic but people have been really good at bringing it down to a level where I can understand what they're doing and why they are doing it,” said Isabella McGilvray, a graduate administrator in the Faculty of Medical and Human Science.
New for this year, the Showcase featured the finalists from the research image and short-film competitions. The Image Awards challenged researchers to capture their research in one striking image and caption, we received over 50 very high calibre submissions which were whittled down to 15 finalists, whose images were displayed in our Image Gallery in Whitworth on the day. During the event, the public were given the chance to vote for their favourite image, which was announced alongside the judge’s winners during the MDC Awards. Overall, the image competition provided a fun way to connect people with research. “It’s a great way for people to understand what is going on at the University,” commented Jamilla Hawa from Manchester Museum.
Nine postgraduates also took on the challenge of producing short-films of their research story. Whilst the posters and images captured the research itself, the short films allowed us to see the researcher behind the research and gave students the chance to find their own narrative voice. People were offered a personal insight into the journeys of each of the researchers, with the moving stories even bringing people to tears.
Overall, the entire Showcase was a great celebration of postgraduate research and we look forward to many more postgraduates presenting posters, images and short-films next year!
Winners of the show prizes were:
Research Posters
Best Poster Prize Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences – Nadeen Al-Janabi
Best Poster Prize Faculty of Humanities – Johannes Lotze
Best Poster Prize Faculty of Life Sciences – Joanne-Marie Robinson
Best Poster Prize Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences – Christian Thomas
Research Film Awards
Overall Winner – Faculty of MHS - Claire Mitchell "Speech Rehabilitation After Stroke"
Runner Up – Faculty of EPS - Abeer Bukhari "No Matter What"
Highly Commended – Faculty of EPS - Charlotte Shi "Pop Up"
Highly Commended – Faculty of Humanities - Johannes Lotze "InterChina"
Research Image Awards
Overall Winner – Faculty of Humanities - Jennifer Chow “The Last Sailors on the Mary Rose”
Runner Up – Faculty of Humanities - Martin Larsson “The Last Wild Fish”
People’s Choice Image Winner – Faculty of Humanities – Haifa Alroqi “Your child needs YOU”