Celebrating the achievements of 2021 graduating students

Virtual Graduation

On Friday 2nd June 2021, the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering held an online celebration for their graduating students. The event was held on Zoom, and live streamed to YouTube and Facebook. Dr Iestyn Pierce (Head of School for Computer Science and Electronic Engineering) led the celebration. 

Dr Pierce said “All of our students are winners, but at the online celebration on Friday, we awarded prizes to our students who had made significant achievements or had succeeded through demanding situations. We look forward to seeing all our students in person at their graduation, which is planned for next year, but we decided that we would celebrate their achievements at an online event”.

Different academics introduced the prizes, which included celebrating students’ achievements and acknowledging how some students battled through severe challenges, while still proving an elevated level of academic achievement. Professor Jonathan Roberts, who chairs the awards and recognition committee, said “It was good to hear of the stories behind some of the awards. For example, the prize (or W.E as he was known), honours one of Bangor’s early pioneers. W.E. was a local student who came to Bangor in 1897 to study Science, was himself awarded the R A Jones prize for mathematics (which was worth £16 in 1900) and became Professor in Electrical Engineering. Through his research he was made a Fellow of the University of Wales, conducting research on aeronautics, hydroelectricity, radio and television. And the Jane Rudall prize for achievement and progress, which honours a well-loved lecturer at the School of Computer Science who unfortunately lost her battle with cancer in 2010. We congratulate all our students for their achievements, and especially the prize winners.”

Dr Franck Vidal (Senior lecturer and examinations officer for the School) said “It is always excellent to celebrate with our students. As examinations officer I am pleased for the students when they achieve great things, and when all the examinations run smoothly. I was delighted, this year, to be announcing the Jan Abas prize for a student on achievements in computer graphics. I teach the Computer Vision module in the final year, and it was great to grade every student’s work. This year, many students had done some excellent computer graphics work.”

Over fourteen prizes were handed out at the online celebration.

  • We award the J H Gee Prize, for outstanding performance in computing related maths, jointly to Sophie Jolley and Jake Vardy.
  • The W. E. Williams prize, for the best second year student on a BSc or BEng course is given to David Batty.
  • The R H C Newton award, for the best second year student on maths for engineering, was awarded to Yangming Wang.
  • The Paul Green Memorial award, for the most meritorious undergraduate on their final year project, was awarded to Pablo Martinez O’Reilly.
  • Sabrina Zulkifli scooped the R A Jones Prize, for proficiency in Engineering-related Maths.
  • Chris Hurford was awarded the Dr David Owen (physics) prize. For outstanding performance in physics in their engineering course.
  • The Ada Lovelace award, for the most meritorious female in engineering, was awarded to Sabrina Zulkifli.
  • The Ada Lovelace award, for the most meritorious female in a Computing course, was given jointly to Alexandra Mitu, and Natasha Pearl.
  • The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) prize for the best final year student on an IET-accredited course was won by Hanzhe Sun.
  • Armandas Bespalovas, achieved excellent results throughout all his modules, especially in computer graphics, and was awarded the Jan Abas Computer Graphics Prize, by demonstrating the best use and understanding of computer graphics or related technologies in their final year of their course.
  • The Dr Jane Rudall Award for Achievement and Progress is awarded every year to a student who has attained significant achievements having pursued their studies with determination and effort. This year the Jane Rudall award is given to Mercy Opawole.
  • The Professor David Last Memorial award, for the most improved student in the school, is awarded to Maria Taggart.
  • The prize for most meritorious student on a computing course, is awarded to Samuel Hennessey.
  • The most meritorious degree apprentice award is given to Spencer Kenny.

Dr David Perkins (Director of teaching and learning) said “It was especially great to celebrate with our students at this virtual event, after a year of mostly studying remotely. We congratulate all our students for the achievements this year, and look forward to seeing them, in person, at the graduation ceremony next year. Congratulations class of 2021.”

Publication date: 13 July 2021