Home Early career researchers ECR Video Competition 180 Seconds of Discovery | 2018

180 Seconds of Discovery | 2018

The ECR Forum is pleased to present '180 Seconds of Discovery'. There are significant benefits to communicating well about your research, and a fun way to develop these skills is by participating in a exciting video competition (with a cash prize).

180 Seconds of Discovery is the third video competition organised by Royal Society Te Apārangi's ECR Forum to help early career researchers showcase their work and build their communications confidence.

Winners

Seer Ikurior from Massey University won the the 2018 Future Leader Award with his video entry Wormy Lambs: Using Sensing Technologies to Make Targeted Treatments

Gastrointestinal nematode parasitism is a major animal health challenge for grazing lambs, as well as being an important source of economic loss to livestock producers. Animals suffering from parasitism typically display a voluntary reduction in feed intake and altered grazing behaviour. These changes are potentially important as indicators of disease. My research is exploring the diagnostic value of these behavioural changes recorded by GPS and accelerometer sensors. The aim is to facilitate earlier detection of parasitism and target treatment to individual animals who need treatment.

Suranga Nanayakkara from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute won 2018's People's Choice Award with his video FingerReader: Enabling People with Visual Impairments to Access Information on the Go.

People with visual impairments face numerous difficulties with existing state-of-the-art technologies including problems with accuracy, mobility, efficiency, cost, and more importantly social exclusion. The design of FingerReader address these challenges as it allows users to simply point at objects to perform a recognition and interpretation task on what the FingerReader sees and hear the result spoken to him or her through a bone conduction headset. We believe FingerReader will make a significant impact on how the visually impaired community can independently access information on the go.