The annual competition challenges masters and PhD students to present the subject of their thesis in three minutes, with the aid of only one static slide.
University of Otago zoology student Jonah Belk has spent this year working on the ''passive dynamics of spider locomotion''.
His project was based around the idea that robots generally were clumsy in their movements, and that people designing them could learn a lot from studying the fluidity of animals.
''I've basically been running through design after design.''
His ''spider'' was built from ''lots of little motors'', 3-D-printed legs, and plenty of springs, to give it bounce.
He was thinking of offering a lollipop in the national finals of the competition to whoever could tell him why his robotic ''spider'' only had six legs at this stage.
The experience had been a learning curve for Mr Belk, who had a background in neuroscience and design.
He had not had any experience in robotics since high school and one of the most challenging parts of the project was getting the 3-D printer to work.
He was refining his project - as broken legs were still a frequent occurrence - and would hopefully have it complete in March.
His supervisor, Associate Prof Mike Paulin, was the co-founder of ''Bristlebotics'' and made miniature robots for schoolchildren, which they could decorate.
Mr Belk will attend the national 3MT competition finals in Dunedin Marama Hall on August 22.
The University of Otago's PhD winner, Christchurch pathology and biomedical science student Cassie Stylianou, has made it all the way through to the Australia-Pacific finals in Brisbane, on October 4.
Her project is on ''Unravelling the genetic variants underlying inherited endometrial cancer risk'' - looking at risk factors in cancer of the womb.
