Cambridge's Bright Sparks

Eight Cambridge students shortlisted for major award

Britain's top science, engineering and technology students will discover next month which of them has been declared Student of the Year. The four-year-old awards have been described as the Oscars of the science, engineering and technology world and they are backed by Britain's leading scientific and technical organisations.

Eight students from the University of Cambridge have been shortlisted, in seven of the 13 award categories. The shortlist was announced this week in the Daily Telegraph. Malcolm Turner, whose company, The World Leadership Forum Ltd, developed the idea of the awards, told the Telegraph: "We in Britain undervalue science and technology and have traditionally seen a job in the City or a degree in the classics or humanities as the more prestigious rewards for our brightest students. It is a cultural problem which has to be challenged. We hope that these awards help to do that by raising the profile of science degrees."

Rachel Battilana (pictured left), a student in the University's Department of Engineering, was shortlisted for an award in the Best Civil Engineering Student category, for her work on emergency shelters for refugees.

The eight Cambridge nominations are:

The BOC Award for the Best Chemical Engineering Student
Jethro Akroyd, Modelling the Polymerisation of Methyl Methacrylate

The World Leadership Forum Award for the Best Chemistry Student
Caroline Wright, Dominant Interactions in the Folding Transition State of Beta-Sandwich Proteins

The Institution of Civil Engineers Award for the Best Civil Engineering Student
Rachel Battilana, Design of Cold Climate Emergency Shelter for Refugees

The MISYS Award for the Best Computer or Computer Software Student
Matthew Lloyd, Real-Time Musical Pitch Tracking System
Hanna Wallach, Visual Representation of Computer Aided Design Constraints

The BTexact Technologies Award for the Best Electrical Engineering Student
Lily Cheng, A Universal Wireless Charging Platform for Mobile Devices

The Morgan Crucible Award for the Best Materials Student
Christopher Rawlings, Music to the Masses

The GlaxoSmithKline Award for the Best Pharmacology Student
Clare Galtrey, Roles of Synaptotagmin and Dynamin

Each category has three finalists, who will be interviewed by the institutes judging their award. Each winner receives £500 and a trophy and their University receives £1,000. The overall winner, which will be announced on 20 September, will receive a further £500 and the title of Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year. This year's awards will be presented at the Guildhall, in London, by Baroness Greenfield, the eminent pharmacologist and author of books on the brain and the mind.