The value to businesses of student work placements in IT
and engineering roles will be highlighted at the annual Year in
Industry Contribution to Business Awards at the Institution of
Civil Engineers in London tomorrow (6 September).
The Year in Industry scheme places students who are on a gap or
sandwich year with companies around the UK. Each year students on
the scheme are encouraged to enter the Contribution to Business
Awards.
Entrants fight their way through to regional finals and the
winner in each of the 11 regions goes on to the national final.
Derek Newman, chair of the BCS Education and Training Expert
Panel, said he was happy to encourage BCS involvement in the scheme
following feedback from the judges about the high quality of IT
used in projects. The BCS will provide IT prizes for the
winners.
Jonathan Austin, who has been working for Sharp Laboratories in
Oxford, won the South of England regional award. His project
submission was based on his work to automate measurement processes
in laboratory situations.
Austin wrote software and determined the interfaces to process
messages generated from devices using standard Windows-based
protocols. His solution has proved so successful that it has been
taken up by another department in Sharp's parent company in
Japan.
Mazeta Coelho, who was placed with HTA Architects, won the
London regional award for work centred on the configuration and
commissioning of an audit tool upgrade.
She was tasked by the IT director with identifying and
recovering printing costs incurred across the architects
practice.
The winner in the West Midlands, Alistair Thompson, was involved
in a project with Qinetiq Rail to install the Connected Carriage
Wi-Fi broadband internet service on Virgin West Coast Pendolino
trains.
Thompson had to produce and maintain the technical construction
file for external validation and also developed a stock control
system to ensure the necessary parts were available to meet a
demanding timescale.
Michael Illsley, working for BAE Systems, won the South West of
England award for his achievements in updating and improving the
navigation department's aircraft simulator software, which is used
to demonstrate BAE Systems' avionics products to customers.
More details about the Year in Industry scheme:
www.yini.org.uk
Information on BCS membership:
www.bcs.org/membership
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