{"id":3570,"date":"2025-10-29T10:13:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/?p=3570"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:13:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:13:45","slug":"on-board-te-waka-houra-unitec-mit-research-communities-unite-to-deliver-successful-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/on-board-te-waka-houra-unitec-mit-research-communities-unite-to-deliver-successful-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"On board Te Waka Houra: Unitec\/MIT research communities unite to deliver successful competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On board Te Waka Houra: Unitec\/MIT research communities unite to deliver successful competition<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

24\/10\/2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The coming together of Unitec and MIT\u2019s research community for the 2025 Three Minutes to Impact (3MT) Competition has been a hailed an \u201cuplifting and inspirational\u201d success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt felt like we are already on board the Waka Hourua \u2014 connecting through research,\u201d says Dr Rosanne Ellis, Director, Research and Enterprise Tamaki, Tuapapa Rangahau, following Wednesday\u2019s event at Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae, which attracted close to a hundred kaimahi and \u0101konga from both institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was incredibly proud of our kaimahi and \u0101konga who participated. The competition truly highlighted the strength of MIT and Unitec\u2019s vocational education research ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Master of Applied Technologies (Computing) \u0101konga, Maria Gomes was the winner of student category at the 2025 Unitec\/MIT \u2013 Three Minutes to Impact Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirteen master\u2019s and doctoral \u0101konga were entered in this category at this year\u2019s Competition held at Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria\u2019s presentation titled \u2018Heart Disease Detection using Graph Neural Networks\u2019 was well received by the judging panel: Gregor Steinhorn (Head Judge), Associate Professor Lefaoalii Dion Enari, Associate Professor Laura Harvey, Associate Professor Deb Heke, and Robert Shaw (MIT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel very overwhelmed. I was not expecting to win at all. But it\u2019s a really good opportunity so I\u2019m so grateful for it,\u201d says the 25-year-old data science major who hails from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria\u2019s research is using AI for automatic diagnosis for heart diseases, which could address the drawn-out process of patients redoing their ECG (electrocardiogram) exams.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s also difficult to find some hidden patterns that even humans can\u2019t find, which AI can do. Ultimately, I just want people to be able to do ECG tests once and then go home rather than having to do an over and over again,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria attributes her win to being prepared and simplifying her research, which was important with the three-minute time cap. Her research also resonated with the audience on a personal level as heart disease is a leading cause of death in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA really good way for making an effective presentation is to use analogies, because it helps adapt your research so that anyone can understand it. So, finding a good example that can relate with everybody in the room, because you\u2019ve only got a short time and you have to get across your points very fast,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her principal supervisor, Associate Professor Iman Ardekani says: \u201cMaria combines intellectual depth with the ability to communicate with clarity and warmth, a quality that makes her research both engaging and impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master Creative Practice \u0101konga, Tracey Deane (Liminal Illumination) and Master of Landscape Architecture \u0101konga, Hunter Henson (Whenua ki te whenua) were runners up in the student category.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Eleven presenters were entered in the kaimahi category which was won by MIT\u2019s Maureen Fepuleai from the School of Health and Counselling for her presentation titled \u201cNavigating Ala: Empowering Tama\u2019ita\u2019i S\u0101moa through Shared Stories\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge, Assoc. Prof. Enari described her presentation as \u201cpowerful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe really took us on a journey with her story and made us, the audience feel the pain of the elders, and she told it in a very beautiful way,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unitec\u2019s Associate Professor, Kristie Cameron (School of Environmental and Animal Sciences) \u2013 \u2018Community of researchers of applied and future-focused training\u2019 and Genevieve Sang-Yum (School of Social Practice) \u2013 \u2018Intersections of faith and abuse: A study of Samoan social work practitioners\u2019 insights into family violence\u2019 were runners up.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was fantastic to see the diversity of applied research and research-in-practice being showcased \u2014 from Kaupapa M\u0101ori, Pacific, health and wellbeing, to business, architecture, creative industries, and deep tech like AI and computer science,\u201d Dr Ellis remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were especially appreciative of our MIT kaimahi, who juggled teaching obligations and navigated terrible traffic to attend \u2014 your commitment did not go unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All winners received flowers and a $1000 eGift voucher with the runners up receiving flowers and a $500 eGift voucher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Ellis acknowledged the support from the judging panel, the Marae\/MAIA Team and Kaiha\u016btu, Harawira Pearless, and the Team at T\u016b\u0101papa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On board Te Waka Houra: Unitec\/MIT research communities unite to deliver successful competition 24\/10\/2025 The coming together of Unitec and MIT\u2019s research community for the 2025 Three Minutes to Impact (3MT) Competition has been a hailed an \u201cuplifting and inspirational\u201d… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3572,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3570\/revisions\/3572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unitec.ac.nz\/UnitecResearchBlog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}