CEME student Jessica Bohorquez through to 3MT Asia-Pacific Final

Congratulations to superhero Jessica Bohorquez from the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering for her incredible achievement at the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) University of Adelaide Final. 

Jessica

Jessica has taken home all three available prizes:

  • 3MT University Winner
  • People's Choice Award
  • Woodville High School Student Choice Award.

Jessica will now represent the University of Adelaide at the Asia-Pacific 3MT Competition hosted by the University of Queensland on Friday 4 October, featuring 3MT finalists from across Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, North-East Asia and South-East Asia.

Her winning thesis presentation, “Guardians of the Pipeline”, describes a new leak detection technique for drinking water pipelines which has been developed based on the use of fluid transient waves and Artificial Intelligence.

Jessica says, "We all use water every day and most of us take this resource for granted. However, in some parts of the world (including some important cities in Colombia) people receive water only a few days a week and sometimes the supply is interrupted. 

From very early in my professional career I found passion in research as a way to solve some of the water-related problems in the world. A few years later, I discovered my other passion: teaching. Future engineers should understand the importance of water supply and the complexities that the water supply infrastructure and operation have.

Under this umbrella of passions and dreams, I landed in Australia in 2017 to start my PhD program at The University of Adelaide. My research here is focused on developing a methodology to assess the condition of pipelines by using Artificial Neural Networks and fluid transients pressure traces. I have been lucky enough to work in a wonderful research group with some of the top researchers in the area and join my research with a different area, as is Machine Learning. 

The Three Minute Thesis competition gave me the opportunity to share my research in a fun and engaging environment and I am grateful to have been selected as the winner. 

I will do my best to represent the University at UQ in the finals."

Jessica's supervisors are Angas Simpson, Martin Lambert and Bradley Alexander.

We would also like to congratulate and thank Sylvia Edifor for making it through to the University of Adelaide finals night.

Well done Jessica - the whole Faculty wishes you all the best for the finals in Queensland.

Watch Jessica's winning thesis here.

Tagged in Latest News and Achievements, 3MT, research, Civil Environmental and Mining Engineering