Five Unusual Approaches to Thesis Presentation

The annual Dance Your PhD contest invites PhD students to conduct their thesis presentation to the world... using the medium of interpretative dance. There are four categories – physics, chemistry, biology and social sciences – and entries are scored by a panel of judges (including some pretty big-name academics) on three criteria: scientific merit, artistic merit, and creative combination of science and art.

Dance not really your thing? Then how about picking up a paintbrush, focusing on the very essence of your research, and – well – seeing what comes out? That’s what a group of scientists did at the 2009 European Researchers Night in Vienna. The results are pretty cool – though of course the real challenge is still explaining to people what your painting ‘means’! (Try this: “Well, artistic meaning is really dependent on the observer isn’t it? What does it mean to YOU?”)

In fact, lots of universities run ‘research as art’ competitions, though usually based on photography, rather than painting. For example, at the UK’s University College London (UCL), graduate students and staff from all faculties can enter the annual ‘research as art’ competition, with selected entries displayed as part of a gallery. Images can be of anything – urban areas, natural phenomena, human cells... (Though again, you do need to be able to at least vaguely explain how this pretty image relates to your Very Important Research Project.)

More of a gamer than an artist? No problem: just turn your thesis presentation into a computer game! The Wellcome Trust’s Gamify Your PhD competition brought together teams of scientists and game developers to do just this. As a result, the world now has a game which puts the player inside an intestine, controlling cells to fight off harmful bacteria. Surely this can only be a good thing.