Kaumātua kōrero, manta rays and birdsong take Showcase top spots

Held at Unleash Space, the Celebration was the culmination of the week-long showcase exhibition, featuring research posters, images and creative items submitted by doctoral candidates and research masters students from across the University. Prizes were available in three categories: Research Posters, Research Images and Creative Items.

The competition’s flagship category, Academic Posters, was won by award-winning pharmacist and FMHS doctoral candidate Joanna Hikaka.

"My poster focussed on part of my PhD research and explored the experiences of older Maori in relation to medicines and pharmacy services. In the poster, I presented the key messages that kaumātua talked about, which overall related to them having the ability, desire and right to control their medicines journey."

Edy Steyawan, who is studying for a PhD in Marine Science, won the images competition with a stunning aerial photograph of a large manta ray gliding through turquoise waters beside a boat and a floating measuring stick.

Image category judge, Dr Ruth Watson (Fine Arts) said of the photograph, “This image brought a smile to my face, as well as addressing the 'wow' part of the criteria. My first impression was to simultaneously grasp immediately the size of the manta ray and what a privilege it is to get to see it (even via photography) … A superb image that could easily go out into publication.”

An audio track of birdsong with associated visualisation took first place in the Creative Items category with an exhibit called ‘Animal sound detector for wildlife conservation’. Winner Fathima Zohara Rafi, a PhD candidate in Biological Sciences, recorded the birdsong for her research into measuring animal populations.

“My PhD research helps answer ‘how many individual animals are left in an area?’, a million-dollar question in wildlife conservation. I record wildlife sound such as birds and fish (yes, fish make sound!). I listen to the recordings to identify bird and fish sound, which helps me train automatic detection algorithms. With the help of statistics, I then use animal sound to estimate the number of individual birds and fish present in a reserve/park.”

Judges called the work “thought provoking and well-articulated”, noting that “use of the raspberry pi and audio visual system created a very immersive experience by presenting the sounds back to the audience and placing them in the same position as a researcher.”

Find photographs from the night at 2020 winners.

The SGS Research Showcase is an end-of-year celebration of doctoral and masters research at the University of Auckland. Participants can submit their research outputs to any of three categories - Research Posters, Research Images and Creative Items.

Find out more at SGS Research Showcase.