Following on from a successful visit last year, J.P. Morgan returned to the School of Computer Science last week, to promote tech careers, internships and other student opportunities.
Staff from the company and CS students are pictured viewing project challenges and their solutions highlighted in their technology showcase whilst discussing future career openings and enjoying the complimentary pizza.
J.P. Morgan is a popular destination for our graduates demonstrated by four Alumni (Maria McParland, Nada Kartouch, Conner Somerville and Peter Cockroft) who were part of the team representing the company at the successful event.
Congratulations to Gala Malbasic who won Young Software Engineer of the Year 2017. The awards organised by ScotlandIS were presented at the ScotSoft Awards Dinner yesterday evening. The Young Software Engineer of the Year awards are awarded to the best undergraduate software projects from students studying computer science and software engineering in Scotland.
Gala’s project, Leap Up: The Keyboard Renaissance, set out to to make keyboard interaction faster and less complicated and involved creating a hardware prototype, using software to ensure optimal sensor performance and implemented a large gesture set for use within the system prototype. The final year project was supervised by Professor Aaron Quigley.
Judged against the level of innovation planning & organisation, technical difficulty, commercial and/or social relevance, quality of engineering quality of presentation and level of knowledge & previous research, Judges considered Gala’s project to be exceptional.
As overall winner, Gala received a cheque for £2500 from Sopra Steria, and a trophy from ScotlandIS.
Postgraduate students, led by Paul Dobra, organised the first ever CS Ball in August. The celebration coincided with finishing summer dissertations and the annual poster and demo session. The school sponsored Smurfalicious Blue Ball proved very popular and sold out of tickets earlier in August. The theme was blue and the location was The old Manor Hotel, in Lundin Links. The evening comprised of champagne, dinner and a Ceilidh till midnight. Students are pictured enjoying the 3 course dinner and fully embracing the spirit of a Cèilidh. We look forward to seeing them at December Graduation.
Images courtesy of Paul Dobra, Ula Rustamova, Nick Tikhonov, and Xu Zhu.
– Main Organisers: Paul Dobra & Shyam Reyal
– Promotion (online): Yin Noe, Nouchali Reyal
– Promotion (offline): Gillian Baird, Fiona George, Midhat Un Nisa
– Material Design: Yin Noe
– Photography: Ula Rustamova and Nick Tikhonov
– Decorations: Fiona George, Midhat Un Nisa, Anke Shi, Masha Nedjalkova, Sihan Li
– Electronics / Multimedia / Drone: Xu Zhu
– Music for Disco: Blair Fyfe
The Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards are given for the best undergraduate software projects completed by students studying computer science and software engineering in Scotland.
Gala graduated in Computer Science from St Andrews earlier this year, her Major Software Project – Leap Up: The New Keyboard Renaissance, incorporated novel uses of the Leap Motion sensor and was supervised by Professor Aaron Quigley.
Previous finalists and prize winners have included, Simone Ivan Conte, Sam Elliott,Thomas Grimes, Alistair Scott, Craig Paul, Angus MacDonald, Ben Catherall and Graeme Bell. The number of finalists is further testament to the quality of talented students graduating from the School of Computer Science at St Andrews.
The winners of this year’s award will be announced on 5th October 2017!
After advising and induction events, staff and students are pictured enjoying a welcome reception and orientation activities, coordinated by Uta Hinrichs. The annual orientation gaming session proved as popular as ever and offered retro classic digital games and traditional board games. The gaming session was closely followed by a well attended welcome reception for the consumption of Twiglets and Irn Bru.
After a year of hard work, and an intensive summer dissertation, our MSc students submitted their dissertations last week and presented their project posters and artefacts.
The eventful poster demonstration session provides a great opportunity for students to meet with second markers, reflect upon their MSc experience and appreciate the diverse projects completed by their peers. This year, students organised a School sponsored CS Ball, to celebrate their achievement.
We wish them all, every success with future plans, and look forward to seeing them again at December Graduation.
Postgraduate student, Paul Dobra organised an end of semester celebratory dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in April. The social event marked the end of teaching and provided a chance to relax before the commencement of dissertation. Paul supplied comments and shared some photos from the occasion.
“There are rather few occasions not to be happy when you are surrounded by friends and family. Even better so when your friends are like your family, and in true computer science spirit the end of the second semester finished in a grand style: enjoying the scenic view of the North Sea from the balcony of the Fairmont Hotel and Restaurant, approximately 60 postgraduates celebrated their friendship and the successful completion of deadlines. Consisting of a lavish three-course meal and blessed with amazing weather, the event was a reminder of the true, everlasting bonds that can be forged outside university.”
We would like to cordially invite all staff, students, and alumni to this historic CS event in the making. As you know, other schools in St Andrews have their own annual ball e.g. chem-ball, physics-ball, bull-and-bear (economics) ball etc. For a while, we have wanted our own CS ball – and thanks to a team of keen MSc students and sponsorship from the School of Computer Science – the ball is finally happening!
Full 3 course dinner (starter, main, dessert) with 4 options each to choose from – including vegan/vegetarian/pescaterian options and adjustments for Halal etc.
The ball will strengthen our sense of fellowship, between all staff and students, and not least as a school. But as you all know very well, we are not just a school, we are a family – the St Andrews #csfamily. Hope to see many of you there!
