The Visualise Your Thesis (VYT) competition is an exciting opportunity for HDR students to creatively showcase their research in a visual format. Participants are tasked with distilling their research into a compelling 60-second visual representation, making their work accessible and engaging to a broader audience.
And the winner is...
Please join us in congratulating Persia Anderton from the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences for her exceptional and thought-provoking submission titled: Unveiling Hidden Norms: Towards a New Scale for Measuring Social Endorsement of Sexual Double Standards.
Persia’s research stood out among a competitive field of entries—challenging societal norms and introducing a framework to assess sexual double standards with broad relevance to public health, education, and policy.
This award honours bold, creative research that challenges convention. Persia’s work exemplifies these values, and we’re proud to celebrate her achievement.
Congratulations, Persia!
Watch Persia's reflections on winning 2025 VYT competition (Stream, 2:24 mins, login required).
Persia Anderton from the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences is the winner of the VYT competition 2025.
We would also like to recognise our place-getters for their impressive videos:
- Second Place: Luis Carlos Florez, School of Engineering, Development and Evaluation of Seismic Protection Techniques to Preserve Historic Masonry Structures in Melbourne
- Third Place: Nipunika Hansani Karunapala, School of Science, 1.76 million down under
- People’s Choice: Juveena Piyus, School of Engineering, A sensor for fresh food and less waste.
The VYT competition entries are added to the RMIT Research Repository, allowing everyone to explore the innovative ideas presented by our talented students.
About the competition
The competition is open to all currently enrolled HDR students (Masters by Research, Ph.D.) at any stage of their candidature who are active and attending. Please note that Honours students, Masters by coursework students, graduate researchers on a leave of absence, lapsed candidates, and graduate researchers employed by RMIT University with potential influence over the competition outcome are not eligible to enter.
Why participate?
Participating in VYT offers you the opportunity to:
- Develop essential digital communication skills.
- Build awareness of open access and copyright.
- Showcase your research to a broader audience.
- Compete for prizes and recognition.
Judging criteria
Entries will be evaluated based on:
- Topic understanding
- Communication and language
- Creativity and engagement
- Topic significance
Prizes
- 1st prize: $1200
- 2nd prize: $600
- 3rd prize: $300
- People's choice: $250
The 2025 RMIT Visualise Your Thesis competition has concluded.
International competition winner will be announced in October 2025.
Interested in the 2026 competition? Contact the Library's Research Services team at library.researchservices@rmit.edu.au to be kept up to date.
The Library will be providing a number of training sessions, including:
- General Information
- Copyright
- Storytelling
- Using Adobe Express
A document pack is available that includes:
- Entrant pack
- Terms and conditions
- Presentation template
Documentation and training sessions, including registration, are available from the Visualise Your Thesis guide.
Past winners
First Place: Jacinta Colvin, School of Science, "The Effect of Environmental Contaminants on the Health of Seabirds".
Second Place: Michael Doneman, School of Media and Communication, “Animating Elderhood: Datascapes of Ageing in Place”.
Third Place: Gideon Hutapea, School of Design, “Indonesian Comics: Shaping Cultural Identities and Designing the Nation’s Incentive”.
People’s Choice: Nicholas Waxman, School of Education, “Acting Out! Embodying Voice and Agency: A Theatrical Inquiry into Learning Environments”.
Browse all VYT 2024 entries in the RMIT Research Repository and explore the innovative ideas presented by our talented students.
Reflections from the VYT 2024 winner, Jacinta Colvin
Jacinta recounts her experience of participating in the competition and creatively condensing extensive PhD research into an engaging visual presentation. This effort not only helped clarify the core message of the research but also broadened its reach to both international and local audiences.
Jacinta encourages others to embrace the challenge and opportunity to creatively present their research through the Visualise Your Thesis competition.
Copyright
The material presented on this site is provided for the express purpose of the Visualise Your Thesis programme conducted by RMIT University Library. All copyright in text, data, images, audio, video and other such material on the site is protected by copyright held by The University of Melbourne and is made available for use by RMIT University Library and programme entrants.
In using the Visualise Your Thesis programme materials you agree that you must not reproduce, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse or adapt the material contained in this site without the prior written permission of The University of Melbourne.
