How a PhD created career and life opportunities for this graduate

Life after graduate research: Dr Martin Reinoso

Dr Martin Reinoso loved solving problems creatively during his PhD. For him, the graduate research degree led to a job, a startup company and Australian citizenship.

Dr Reinoso arrived in Australia from Ecuador in 2013. He had received a scholarship from Ecuador to study a masters program at the University of Melbourne. His supervisor encouraged him to stay for a PhD in Engineering and IT.

“I saw this opportunity in front of me and I just took it,” Dr Reinoso says.

During his Master of Science, Dr Reinoso had studied how virtual reality could be used to train martial arts. Normally, students watch and try to mirror an instructor. But virtual reality could show them exactly where their limbs are supposed to go.

Dr Reinoso then became interested in augmented reality – bringing virtual objects into the real world. Augmented reality-based learning would be helpful in fields like physiotherapy and medicine where students have to think about things in 3D.

“We understand things differently when we see them in 3D, because we don't have to think about them in abstract,” Dr Reinoso says.

His PhD project was to improve communication in an augmented reality space. Supervised by Professor Frank Vetere, Dr Thuong Hoang and Professor Egemen Tanin, he investigated how a student and teacher could manipulate and annotate virtual objects to promote learning.

PhD scholarships empower creative work

Dr Reinoso received a scholarship from the University to pay for his living expenses during his PhD. To add to this income, Dr Reinoso did tutoring work for academics in the Faculty of Engineering and IT.

Dr Reinoso also got a top-up scholarship from the Microsoft Research Centre for Social Natural User Interfaces, now the Human-Computer Interaction group. As a member of the research centre, Dr Reinoso worked to creatively apply technology to various problems. For example, he helped build the artwork Pump up your blood. It was part of the first Science Gallery Melbourne exhibition. The artist, Benjamin Skepper, wanted real human heartbeat sounds in the background of his music. He wanted the heartbeat to go faster or slower based on what he played.

“I was behind the computer making sure that things were working,” Dr Reinoso says.

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Residential colleges bring people together

During his PhD, Dr Reinoso was living at Newman College. It’s a residential college of the University of Melbourne that is a short walk away from the Parkville campus.

Living at the college meant Dr Reinoso could go home for lunch before returning to the lab for the afternoon. He also loved being surrounded by a community of fellow researchers and students.

This multidisciplinary student community encouraged him to try new things and use all the support services the University had to offer. Dr Reinoso had thought psychological services were only for people with mental illnesses. But his friends who studied psychology convinced him to try it out.

Curious, Dr Reinoso made an appointment at the University of Melbourne’s counselling and psychological services. The services are free for currently enrolled students and staff.

His own experience in psychology made Dr Reinoso want to help others improve their mental health.

“They did help me. I have used the skills I learned a lot, and I have talked to other people to share with them what I learned,” he says.

A PhD can open many doors

His PhD became a pathway to Dr Reinoso’s Australian citizenship.

“Without the PhD, I wouldn't have gotten the permanent residency. And I wouldn't have gotten the citizenship,” Dr Reinoso says.

Dr Reinoso is now Senior Virtual Reality Developer at Orygen. Orygen is a not-for-profit research organisation dedicated to improving the mental health of young people.

At Orygen, Dr Reinoso’s virtual reality research continues. He works with other researchers, mental health clinicians and young people. Dr Reinoso uses skills he learned in his PhD every day to support research on mental health with young people. His skills include helping develop ideas, prototyping solutions, testing and data gathering. He also contributes to data analysis and preparing publications.

Based on his PhD research, Dr Reinoso has also co-founded a startup. 3D Whiteboard is a virtual reality space for illustrating 3D objects. Dr Reinoso and his co-founder received a grant from University of Melbourne incubation program for educational technology, Melbourne InnovatEd, to develop this idea.

So far, Dr Reinoso has worked with the University of Melbourne to show how 3D Whiteboard could help architecture and medical students. He plans to keep working with the University to develop more applications for his technology.

Learn more about a PhD in Engineering and IT