News Archive

A young PhD candidate has turned out to be the best communications tool for a bioengineering research group.

Kelsey Kennedy has won her way to the Asia-Pacific finals of an international research presentation competition, Present Around the World (PATW).

The competition is run by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.  After winning the WA  then the Australian rounds, Kelsey, who is doing her research with the Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (OBEL) in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, will present in Brunei next month, hoping to talk her way into the grand finals in London  and a chance at the 1,000 pound prize.

Kelsey entered the competition at the suggestion of one of her supervisors,  Research Associate Professor Robert McLaughlin.

Each young researcher gives a 10 minute technical presentation on an engineering or technology topic, which is followed by five minutes of questions. Three quarters of the marks are given for presentation skills, a quarter for technical content.

"I attempted to paint a broader picture of my research, rather than focus on technical details of my specific project. My talk, Imaging the Mechanical Properties of Breast Cancer , discusses an imaging technology called elastography, which may have potential to improve detection, diagnosis, and treatment outcomes of breast cancer," Kelsey said.

"Here at OBEL, we are working on an optical version of elastography, which offers a higher resolution (microscopic level) than other available techniques."

Kelsey is doing a winning job of telling the world about the group's already award-winning breast cancer research.