Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards 2011
And the Winners are:
1st Place: Artur Jonkisz, Strathclyde University
Project – Summarising Execution Traces
Artur Jonkisz was selected by the judges as Young Software Engineer of the Year. He collects a unique contemporary trophy, donated by ScotlandIS, and the first prize, a cheque for £2500 from Sopra Group UK.
For his winning project Artur developed a diagnostic tool, ‘TraVis’, which allows software engineers to visualise what’s happening inside a Java software programme, while the programme is running.
This tackles a significant problem for software developers as they try to assess and monitor complex software programmes processing at incredible speeds. TraVis allows them to monitor the execution of programmes which can’t be interrupted or where new instances cannot be created. Until TraVis was developed, it wasn’t possible to visualise how monitored programmes behave during their execution and how individual components interact with each other.
Artur was born and grew up in Ośwęicim, Poland (internationally known as Auschwitz) before moving to the UK in 2005 for a summer, to work with his Uncle. After returning to Poland and completing his final year of high school Artur decided he wanted continue his education and career back in the UK. After various jobs to help fund his studies and improve his English, Artur gained a place to study Computer Science at the University of Strathclyde. In 2008, Artur took part in a Technology Insight Programme with Morgan Stanley in London, and in 2010 secured an internship with JPMorgan. Whilst back in Poland for his cousins wedding Artur survived a serious car accident and was advised not to do his internship and to perhaps take a break from university. Artur ignored this advice, completed his internship, graduated with a First Class Honours and has since joined Amazon as a Software Development Engineer.
2nd Place Rami Al-ashqar, University of Edinburgh
Project – Adapting Human Motion To Reshaped Objects
2nd prize was won by Rami Al-ashqar for his 3D animation interaction project. Rami picked up a cheque for £2000, donated by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT professionals.
The aim of this project was to find an automated solution, which would adapt character animations to reshaped objects and environments within a 3D scene. The problem with current character animations is whenever a character is moved an animator has to reshape the objects or background with which the character is interacting. This currently has to be done manually, which can be very time consuming and costly. Rami’s project has created an automated solution, which cuts out the need for these manual adjustments, thereby tackling a significant challenge for the games and animation industry.
Rami hails from Amman, Jordan and has just graduated with First Class Honours in Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. Rami has lived all over the world from Jordan, Australia and America to Greece, where he graduated from high school. He has always had a passion for computer technology, learning to programme as a child, and creating his first ever game at the age of 10. He is now studying towards a PhD.
3rd place – Tom Grimes, University of St Andrews
Project – Screen Replication Software For Mac OS X
Tom won third prize, a cheque for £1500 from Lumison, one of the UK’s leading business internet provider.
Tom’s project involved developing a software tool called ‘Class Control’. The software has been designed for a classroom environment where students are using computers, and enables the teacher to view a screenshot of each of the screens in the classroom. In addition to viewing their screens, the teacher can chat to the students online. The teacher also has the ability to take remote control of each computer and ‘broadcast’ individual screens to the rest of the class.
Tom graduated from University of St Andrews with a 2:1 degree in Computer Science. His success at university earned him an internship with Prof. Ian Sommerville, at St Andrews and a place at James Madison University's Graduate School, where he is now studying Digital Forensics.
Amor Group Engineering Award – Steff McKenna, Edinburgh Napier University
Project: Baby Diary – A Comparison and Evaluation of the Android and iPhone (iOS) Development Platforms
Steff was awarded the Amor Group award, a special award given to the project which, in the judges’ opinion, most clearly embraces sound software engineering principles.
For her project, Steff developed iPhone and Android mobile apps for a web-based monitoring service. This allows parents, relatives and friends of babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units to track the progress of their baby through regular diary entries written by nurses in the unit, and see accompanying photographs. The mobile apps enable mums and dads to access updates to BabyDiary whilst on the move.
Steff received a cheque for £1500 donated by Scotland’s largest IT company, Amor Group, and her university, Edinburgh Napier, received the Amor Group trophy. Amor Group are Scotland’s leading independent specialist providers of expert business consultancy and IT solutions.
A native of Edinburgh, Steff has recently graduated with a degree in Internet Computing from Edinburgh Napier University. Between developing software applications, Steff is a passionate rugby player, and has captained the Melrose Ladies Rugby Team.
Congratulations to all of the finalist and the Prize Winners... And Thank you again to our Sponsors.