Representatives from IT services company Atos Origin visited the School of Mathematical & Computer Sciences (MACS) on 5 May to judge a competition for the best third year student project.
The students, on the Computer Science and Information Systems programme, had been working on the project for a year. The groups gave presentations to a judging panel made up of staff from MACS and Atos Origin (one of whom, Lynette Earle, is a Heriot-Watt University graduate).
We are impressed with the very high quality of the projects and the professional approach of the students to software development
The Best Group project was awarded to 'Group 1' comprising Mariusz Wojcik, Aneta Frajczyk, James Baxter, Steven Grindlay, David Wood, Neil Milne, and Kei Mak. The students will be presented with a cash prize donated by Atos Origin.
After examining all project deliverables, Alasdair Gibson, a representative of Atos Origin said: "The standard this year of all of the teams was high. We are impressed with the very high quality of the projects and the professional approach of the students to software development."
Group 1 developed a web-based system for membership management for an existing leisure club based in Edinburgh. They demonstrated real initiative, technical expertise as well as fantastic team spirit throughout. Both the club members and the judges were impressed with the functionality and the quality of the software. The judging session was extremely competitive and very interactive.
Lilia Georgieva, Third Year Supervisor for the Computer Science course at Heriot-Watt University said: "The students were excited to interact with and learn from the experience of staff members of Atos Origin, one of who was our own alumna. The students gained valuable experience and feedback from the panel. We very much appreciate the time and money that Atos Origin devotes to our students through sponsorship of this prize.
"We are delighted with the expertise and sensitivity that they bring to the judging panel - it leaves our students with knowledge and an extremely favourable impression of Atos Origin as a potential future employer."