Students showcase their creativity at the Student Colloquium 2023

27 November 2023 - Jacqueline Tonkie is our student communication champion for 2023. 

42 students competed in a 90-second thesis video competition showcasing not only their breakthroughs in their research but their creativity as well. There was everything from Pixar-style animations to videos of students' research in action.  The winner is crowned the Ansley Te Hiwi Student Communicator of the year.

In what was a very tight competition, judges identified the top three presentations as well as a highly commended. In first place was Jacqueline Tonkie, with her animated presentation on “Complementary feeding to nourish and support the developing infant”. There was an audible response from the audience when her video came on screen, and there was great enjoyment at the cartoon versions of Jacqueline and her supervisors.

Above: A still from Jacqueline's 90-second thesis presentation on complementary feeding to nourish and support the developing infant.

In a close second was 2022’s winner Aylin Şen, with her clear and interesting explanation of her topic “New functionalities from plant oil bodies for food applications”. Aylin was the winner in this competition last year.  In third place was Patricia Soh, whose animated video explaining her topic “Protein quality in vegan diets​” conveyed clearly the importance of her research and entertained the audience at the same time. The highly commended mention went to Xuan Dong, who included videos of herself in the lab for her video on “Sustainable solutions: Unveiling the science behind hempseed protein”.

The annual Riddet Institute Student Colloquium was held in Tāhuna Queenstown, New Zealand this year on 14 November in the lead up to the Food Structures, Digestion and Health International Conference. The colloquium brought together our postgraduate students from across the country to share their research and be inspired by guest speakers from a range of backgrounds.

The Right Honourable Sir Lockwood Smith, Chair of the Riddet Institute Board, welcomed the students to the colloquium, and encouraged them as the future of science in New Zealand on the importance of their research.

The second half of the colloquium featured talks from Ira Bing (Miruku Ltd), Tomás Ribeiro (University of Otago), and Associate Professor Lisa Te Morenga (Riddet Institute, Massey University), covering topics from commercial opportunities in food innovation, managing IP, and effective advocacy.

Above: The winners of the Student Colloquium presentations. From left: Patricia Soh (third place), Jacqueline Tonkie (first place), and Aylin Şen (second place).