Space, education and financial literacy influence OU PGR prizes

A group of people standing around looking at posters

Research into space, education, and financial literacy in India, influenced top prize winners in the OU’s Postgraduate Research Poster Competition 2023.

Now in its 18^th year, the annual competition empowers postgraduate research (PGR) students to communicate their work in a poster or multimedia content.

A judging panel of OU research leaders selected winners in three categories:

Judges’ Choice Poster

Best poster

Fiona Naysmith, standing in front of her poster — Fiona Naysmith, Faculty of Business and Law - Space Resources Extraction: The Case for a Moratorium

Fiona's extremely striking poster really grabbed the judges’ attention with its clear layout and punky sci-fi aesthetic. The arrangement of textboxes and images gave the poster an effective depth. The use of colour (cool to warm) to indicate reading order was also really effective and the sci-fi images really livened up what could have been a dry legal topic. The argument was well-structured, and Fiona's presentation was impassioned, informed and convincing.

On receipt of this award, Fiona said: “I am thrilled to receive the honour of Judge’s Choice Best Poster, and particularly given the high standard of the competition. I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed the Poster event itself. Several people stopped by to discuss my Poster and were genuinely interested in learning about my work. As noted by the judges, I am indeed passionate about my subject, and enjoyed the opportunity to share my enthusiasm with others.“

Joint second prize poster

Jodie Bettis standing in front of her poster — Jodie Bettis, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Piloting the Spirit of the Law Test

The judges commented that Jodie's poster was clearly laid out and, in her presentation, she made really good use of her diagrams.

Elizabeth Harding, standing in front of her poster — Elizabeth Hardman, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences - Confronting canonicity and promoting diversity: Gender and contemporary concert programming

The judges said this was a really attractive and clearly laid out poster. They really liked the use of QR codes and the hand-drawn image. Colour and white space were also used very effectively.

Highly commended

Felicity Boateng standing in front of her poster — Felicia Boateng, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies - Does All ‘Talk’ Lead To 21^st-Century Learning?

Felicia's poster was clearly laid out and colourful with a good balance of text and graphics, but it was her clear and compelling presentation that really impressed the judges.

Community Choice

Best Poster

Linda Robson standing in front of her poster — Linda Robson – “We want to be educated, but we have a life”

Judges’ Choice Image

Best image

Sahil Mathur standing in front of his poster — Sahil Mathur - Lack of Financial Literacy in India - Perspectives from FinTech

Sahil's self-made image and the way he used it in his dynamic presentation really impressed the judges. This wasn't a traditional research poster, but Sahil was able to pack a lot of research information into one very effective image.

Highly commended image

Annie Lennox - Diversity in Space Science Nomenclature

The judges were really impressed by Annie's clear layout and use of charts to clearly illustrate the lack of diversity in space science nomenclature.

Commenting on the entries for the 2023 competition, Robert Wilson, Manager, Student Opportunities, OU Graduate School said:

“Our 22 entries this year did a fantastic job of representing the diverse research we have going on at the OU Graduate School. The event really highlighted the creativity and skill in research communication that Postgraduate Researchers bring to the research community at the OU.”