Tag: ScotlandIS

Napier student wins engineering prize for app to improve F1 lap times

EDINBURGH Napier student Michael Suttie has received the Leidos Best Engineering Prize for developing an application to help amateur and entry-level drivers improve lap times in F1 e-sports.

  • 34th annual awards Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards champion Scotland’s most innovative and creative tech students
  • Dundee University Student from Isle of Eigg earns top award for developing a solution that offers greater accuracy in mapping the moon’s surface
  • Two runners-up recognised for projects involving AI and coding
  • Best Engineering Prize winner uses real-life Formula 1 data to improve amateur and entry-level drivers’ F1 e-sports performance

A Dundee University student has been named Young Software Engineer of the Year for his solution which illustrates what unexplored areas of the moon might look like.

The 34th annual Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards took place in a ceremony in Edinburgh yesterday evening (28th September) hosted by Scotland’s tech trade body ScotlandIS at its ScotSoft conference.

Struan Robertson, originally from the Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, took the top prize home for his project on Lunar Terrain Void Infilling.

Models of the moon’s surface typically show literal gaps in knowledge from where spacecrafts have not been able to see the surface. Struan’s project used a machine learning model to make incredibly accurate assumptions to fill in these gaps, solving an ongoing issue in lunar surface modelling. This innovative solution allows for more accurate maps of the moon’s surface to be developed and is also applicable to earth-based challenges such as disaster management and climate change planning.

The judges recognised the challenging technical complexity of this project, and admired Struan’s creative yet structured approach to the problem, and his real achievements in demonstrating a successful outcome.

The awards recognised a further three students for their outstanding work.

Enrique Martin Ocana, of Strathclyde University, was named runner up for his use of autoregressive language models in the classroom. The project considered the comparative effectiveness of traditional educational content, versus content generated by AI (Artificial Intelligence). He impressed judges by clearly articulating both the contributions and drawbacks of AI generated content in an educational setting.

Aberdeen University student, William Brown, was a runner up with his automatic code reviewer recommendations in the open-source project, MediaWiki. Code review is a critical element in open-source developments, and William compared the success of using a rule-based system to select the reviewer or using a neural network to perform the recommendations.

The Leidos Best Engineering Prize was awarded to Michael Suttie, of Edinburgh Napier University. Michael developed a prototype telemetry application with practical uses in Formula 1 e-sports.

His application presents both live and historical real-life Formula 1 telemetry data in a simplified way to help amateur and entry-level drivers improve lap times in F1 e-sports.

Karen Meechan, CEO at ScotlandIS, said: “Each year we are amazed at the amount of young talent coming through our universities, showcasing true innovation by producing creative solutions to solve real-world problems.

“These awards are a fantastic way for us to showcase the exceptional technological minds, cultivated right here in Scotland, as they begin their transitions into the workplace.

“It’s ever more important to acknowledge and foster emerging talent to ensure that our tech sector in Scotland continues to flourish.  Our industry needs to constantly evolve with skilled people staying ahead of the curve – especially with the growth of AI. This year’s winners really demonstrate how original thinking and a flair for software engineering can transform our understanding of and aptitude in wide-ranging subjects – congratulations to all!”

The longstanding Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards are held annually by ScotlandIS, to champion budding talent in the Scottish technology industry and highlight the innovation and ideas coming from Scotland’s university students. 

To enter, universities submit the best final year software engineering project from among their undergraduate computing science and software engineering courses for the awards.

Other shortlisted students included Mads Bendixen, Abertay University, Jack Duffy, Glasgow Caledonian University, Laura Schauer, Heriot Watt University and Irvyn Hall, Robert Gordon University.

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Tech experts asked to partner with schools to help shape education in Edinburgh

Digital technology experts are being sought to help inform teaching in secondary schools in Edinburgh as the country’s tech industry experiences remarkable growth.

The Digital Critical Friends initiative has been set up by Scotland’s tech trade body, ScotlandIS, to address the industry’s skills gap and tackle high Computer Science drop-off rates in a time when one in ten jobs in Scotland is in the tech sector.

As demand for their services increase, Scottish tech businesses are continuing to face challenges, with 23% citing a lack of basic data skills and 37% reporting a lack of advanced digital skills among their existing workforces.

The Digital Critical Friends initiative aims to link industry professionals with Computer Science educators to support the alignment of lessons with industry best practices and offer students a holistic view of sector opportunities.

Tech professionals – from IT technicians to software engineers – are being encouraged to volunteer to take part in the programme that will help to shape schools’ curriculums.

Fiona Anderson, Project Manager at software development and digital transformation company PDMS, partnered with St Margaret’s High School in North Lanarkshire as part of the programme. 

She said: “It’s important for schools to have direct links with the tech sector so pupils can ask questions and get inspired by the potential career paths that they perhaps weren’t aware of previously.

“Giving young people an idea of the skillsets required for the various jobs in our sector can really help to give them direction for the future.

“For example, discussing how good attention to detail and problem-solving skills are key for analysis and testing jobs, or that design roles might be well-suited to those who are keen on art and design or who have a creative flair, can help students understand which roles in our industry might be a good fit for them.”

Karen Meechan, CEO of ScotlandIS, said: “While our well-established tech sector is growing, companies today are finding it difficult to recruit with today’s shortage of skills. Our mission is to engage and inspire young minds while bridging the skills gap.

“Scotland’s tech sector is dynamic, exciting and offers a brilliant career path for young people today. But given the fast nature of the industry, the changes in how we use and develop technology can’t always be reflected in how the subject is taught in schools. There is no better way to protect the industry’s promising growth trajectory, and job opportunities of school leavers, than to build a direct line of contact between schools and professionals.

“We’re looking forward to working alongside new industry partners as we work to equip students with industry-relevant skills.”

Becoming a Digital Critical Friend involves an initial face-to-face meeting with a local school. The volunteers then maintain regular contact with teachers to help inform teaching, with at least one in-person meeting per term.

Additionally, mentors have the opportunity to invite teachers to their workplace, providing them with an immersive experience, observing their teams and gaining insights into ongoing project.

Karen added: “We understand that each professional and each school will be balancing different priorities, which is why we’ve ensured that the programme can be tailored to best suit the needs of each party.

“For example, we have a school on the Isle of Barra looking for a Digital Critical Friend, which they appreciate will most likely have to be conducted remotely!”

The Digital Critical Friends programme was first launched in 2021, and is now active in over six regions. After a successful start, ScotlandIS is now looking to expand the programme across all regions in Scotland.

To find out more about becoming a Digital Critical Friend, visit the ScotlandIS website.

Students recognised at Young Software Engineer of the Year awards

An Abertay University student has been named Young Software Engineer of the Year at the 33rd annual ceremony from Scotland’s tech trade body ScotlandIS.

Daniel Gearie took first place at the awards ceremony, held as part of the ScotSoft2022 conference, in Edinburgh last week for developing software that can physically locate the position of a drone operator using a variety of tools and techniques.

While drones are being used to transform many industries, they can be problematic in the wrong hands,– with airport disruptions providing a recent example. Locating drone operators, rather than the drones themselves, can provide longer-term solutions to these issues.

When reviewing submissions, the judges were particularly impressed by the way Daniel identified gaps in the effectiveness of current market-leading technology to track drone pilot locations, with his prototype recognised for being expandable in its use and potentially more secure than other systems.

While Daniel took top spot, the awards recognised a further three students for their outstanding work.

Lilli Freischem, of University of Edinburgh, was named runner up for producing a new software tool that can identify essential genes – ones that are critical to the survival of an organism – in a wide range of life forms.

The detection of essential genes is a grand challenge in personalised medicine, the discovery of new drug targets in cancer, and in the identification of genetic markers for the diagnosis of disease. Lilli’s software is able to communicate seamlessly with tools that are already widely adopted, and end users can use its improved predictive power with little additional training or technical expertise.

Robert Gordon University graduate, Raufs Dunamalijevs, was also a runner up for his work to implement two new penalty estimation algorithms in quadratic unconstrainted binary optimisations, improving the accuracy of combinatorial optimisation problems, which forms an important and complex part of computer science and AI.

Finally, Callum Inglis, Computer Science graduate from the University of Strathclyde, was awarded the Leidos Best Engineering Prize at the ceremony.

He won the award for developing a low-cost, off-grid sensor monitoring system, capable of remote sensing in areas without any existing infrastructure.

While the system is built to be applicable to many industries, Callum’s demonstration of his system focussed on indoor and outdoor air quality data collection, which could ultimately be used to support and inform public health decisions.

The longstanding Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards are held annually by ScotlandIS, to champion budding talent in the Scottish technology industry and highlight the innovation and ideas coming from Scotland’s university students. 

To enter, universities submit the best final year software engineering project from among their undergraduate computing science and software engineering courses for the awards.

Karen Meechan, CEO at ScotlandIS, said: “This year, we are celebrating ideas that display an impressive combination of innovation, creativity, and scalability. Each idea brings a potential real term impact to its related sector, making a genuine contribution.

“For decades we have recognised some of the best minds coming from our universities, demonstrating the strength and breadth of tech talent being developed within Scotland.

“In a sector that shows consistent demand for skilled talent, it’s important that, as an industry, we take time to recognise the individuals who truly embody the definition of talent.”