WADE MORRIS

The Whig-Standard

KINGSTON - Queen's University neuroscience student Victoria Donovan will represent the university at a provincial competition after being declared the winner of Queen's fifth annual 3 Minute Thesis contest last week.

Donovan and 10 other Queen's students competed against each other, giving presentations of their thesis projects in less than three minutes, with only one slide and no props.

The judging criteria was based on comprehension, engagement and communication.

The panel of judges -- Queen's principal Daniel Woolf, chancellor Jim Leech, CEO of 8020Info Robert Wood, media coach J.C. Kenny and fundraiser Denise Cumming -- selected Donovan's presentation, titled "Lie Low, Stay Alive," as the winner based on that criteria.

Donovan's presentation explored how she was aiming to understand traumatic brain injuries from an evolutionary perspective.

"Doing so could not only improve future treatment for patients but also minimize the number of mammals required for TBI research," Donovan said.

Donovan could not use props, but thought of a different way to captivate the audience: she asked everyone to make a fist with their hand, putting their thumb on the inside of their fist.

The thumb, she explained, represented the evolutionary old part of a brain that is present in most organisms. The fingers wrapped around the thumb represented the evolutionary part of the brain present only in higher-order organisms as it functions in cognition, language skills and fine motor skills.

"A big difference between the two regions is that the higher brain is less resilient to trauma," Donovan explained.

After Donovan was awarded first place -- with a $1,000 cheque attached -- she thanked those who supported her, including her family, friends and even her cats.

"Despite the fact that they don't have a long attention span, I really appreciate their support," she joked.

Host Bill Welychka said after her presentation that she'd used her cats as an audience in front of which she practised. Her next audience will perhaps be more intimidating: Donovan will represent Queen's at the provincial edition of 3 Minute Thesis, where winners from different schools in the province will compete against each other. If Donovan wins, she'll then compete in a national 3 Minute Thesis competition.

"I'm excited to represent Queen's," Donovan said. "I've been at Queen's for going on six years now and I definitely don't regret a minute of it."

Donovan also won People's Choice, which was chosen by the audience.

Queen's computing student Amani Ibrahim was the runner-up, receiving $500 for her presentation titled "Moving Surgical Design Outside the Operating Room."

Queen's has a history of making its mark at the provincial and national levels of the competition.

In 2015, Chenman Yin of Queen's won People's Choice at the national level, and last year Anastasia Shavrova of Queen's placed third at the provincial level.

Donovan will compete against other 3 Minute Thesis winners from the province on April 12 at the University of Waterloo.

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Neuroscience student wins thesis contest - The Kingston Whig-Standard