Today we have a guest post from Calyn Moulton, a UWA physics PhD student who presented at the 2014 ACPSEM WA Branch annual scientific meeting.

During the meeting, I presented some work on evaluating image registrations applied to CT scans from external beam radiotherapy and high-dose rate brachytherapy planning.  Presenting was a great opportunity to gain experience conveying my research in under 12 minutes. Additionally, the presentation allowed me to get feedback from other researchers and clinicians on the research topic, methods and conclusions. Responding to statistics based questions was an interesting experience and very useful for gaining experience with justifying the methods I used. Question time was also an opportunity to explain parts of the presentation I didn’t have time to focus on during the talk.

I thought the variety of topics presented and the various presentation styles made the event enjoyable and useful for broadening my knowledge. I found the CyberKnife Treatment System talks by Professor Sean Bydder and Mr Jonny Lane the most interesting as I like to find out what is happening in the clinic. It was also good to see the meeting honour the medical physics contributions of the late Dr Adrian Perry.

The event ended with a lunch, which was a great way to meet other researchers, clinicians and physicists in the private industry. The lunch was also a good opportunity to find out what research is happening locally. Additionally, the lunch was a good opportunity to discuss with speakers the work they presented earlier.

I really enjoyed the meeting and the presentation experience. The bonus of presenting was that I won the ACPSEM WA Branch Travel Award, which provides me with travel funding to present at the 2014 Combined Scientific Meeting in Melbourne. I would recommend that students attend future meetings to find out what is happening locally, who the local medical physicists are and what types of research are well received.

Calyn Moulton
PhD Candidate
UWA Medical Physics Research Group