Each year, RMIT invites graduate researchers to discover their poetic side and capture their research in just 17 syllables.
The annual RMIT Haiku Your Thesis competition brings together our research community to celebrate the lighter side of graduate research.
What is a haiku?
A haiku is a short, Japanese poetic form that consists of 17 syllables arranged in three unrhymed lines, following a 5-7-5 pattern. It often captures a feeling or moment observed in nature, creating an image in the reader’s mind.
How to participate in Haiku Your Thesis
Participation is open to our currently enrolled RMIT graduate researchers (PhD and Masters by Research candidates). We invite Haiku Your Thesis submissions every September.
After preliminary judging, 15 finalists will be selected to present their haikus at the yearly Haiku Your Thesis Event in October. Winners will be decided following live judging at the event.
Stay tuned!
Haiku Your Thesis Event
Join us every October at RMIT City campus to hear selected finalists read their haikus and have your say in the Crowd Favourite Award. Stay to enjoy drinks, canapes, hear the winners announced and mingle with the research community.
More event details and a registration form will be added to this page closer to the event.
Clarity
- Strength of the link between your haiku and your thesis or research project
Creativity
- Original and thoughtful expression of your research topic
- Innovation in capturing the essence of your research within the haiku format
Resonance
- Overall impact and how well your haiku connects with the reader
- Enjoyability, memorability, and poetic quality
Winner: $500
Runner-up: $300
Crowd Favourite: $200
College winners: $200 each, one per College (College of Business and Law, College of Design and Social Context, STEM College)
- Haiku Your Thesis is open to all currently enrolled RMIT graduate researchers.
- Each competitor may submit one entry.
- Your haiku must relate directly to your thesis or research project.
- It must follow the three-line, 5–7–5 syllable structure.
- The entry must be your own work, without the use of AI.
Past winners
Winner
Thilani Navaratne, College of Business and Law
Markets bloom with food
Empty bowls hide in their shade
Plenty passes by
Thesis title: Food security of low-income urban households in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Runner-up
Sazdik Ahmed, College of Design and Social Context
Floods write on the land
Old hands read the river’s pulse
The city listens
Thesis title: Adaptive Delta Urbanism: Exploring Traditional Local Knowledge for Flood-Resilient Urban Development in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta
Joint crowd favourites
Muzna Anam, College of Design and Social Context
Build for those unborn
Let earth breathe beneath our roads
Leave more than we take
Thesis title: Carbon Neutrality in Australian Building and Construction Sector Through Nature-Based Solutions
Manjubashini Dhandapani, STEM College
A drop of water
Holding tomorrow's fuel source
Waiting to be freed
Thesis title: Fabrication of Metal Oxide/Nitride Thin Films by Physicochemical Methods for Energy and Biomedical Applications
Image 1: Manjubashini Dhandapani (L), Muzna Anam (R)
College Winner - College of Buiness and Law
Fiona Finn
Ideas run free,
but who asks whose voice is heard?
Ethics shapes the room.
Thesis title: Brainstorming with Boundaries: Navigating Ethical Challenges in Advertising Creativity
College Winner - College of Design and Social Context
Muzna Anam
Build for those unborn
Let earth breathe beneath our roads
Leave more than we take
Thesis title: Carbon Neutrality in Australian Building and Construction Sector Through Nature-Based Solutions
College Winner - STEM College
Nasrin Aslshahrivar
A still, silent train
lightning sleeps beneath the floor
the grid holds its breath
Thesis title: Adaptive Machine Learning and Optimisation for Railway-to-Grid (R2G) Stability
Winner
Alessandro Mameli, School of Science, STEM College
Bright vacancy shines
In a tiny crystal heart
Shows what lies within
Thesis title: Engineering of Nanodiamond NV Centres for Bio-Imaging
Need help?
For more information about the Research Plus program and events, please e-mail sgr.researchplus@rmit.edu.au.
