ECS celebrates Graduation 2013

Many congratulations to over 200 students who received University of Southampton degrees this week gained in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science.

The new graduates were joined by family and friends from around the world on Monday 22 July to celebrate their outstanding achievements. The ECS Graduation ceremonies took place in the Nuffield Theatre and the Turner Sims Concert Hall, followed by Graduation receptions.

Many of the graduates had already started work, with popular destinations for ECS graduates including J P Morgan, ARM, Bloomberg, Factset, and Imagination Technologies. A significant number of graduates will also be embarking on PhD degrees at Southampton and other universities.

Addressing the graduates, Professor Michael Butler, Professor Mark Zwolinski and Senior Tutor Eric Cooke paid tribute to their hard work and to their contribution to the ECS community.

Amongst the prizes awarded for academic and project work was a new prize – the Captec Award for Entrepreneurial Industrial Innovation, awarded to MEng Computer Science graduate Andrei Petre, and to members of the Group Design Project for Scotia Gas: James Helm, Samuel Hipkin, Thomas Scarsbrook, and Matthew Warnes, for their project: ‘Down Hole Wireless Water Detector and Level Sensor’.

Head of School Prizes for exceptional contributions to the ECS and University communities were awarded to Thomas Scarsbrook, MEng Electronic Engineering with Mobile and Secure Systems, and to Chris Smith, MEng Computer Science.

‘I have loved every minute of being at Uni,’ said Chris, ‘and really enjoyed helping out with the ECS Society as well as the open days, careers fairs, alumni events and all other ECS events at which I have had the privilege to represent the University.This has been the best experience of my life so far and is mainly down to ECS as a department and the people within.

'ECS has allowed me to achieve a great degree as well as providing some amazing opportunities and the combination of the Careers Hub and the efforts of our student societies means that ECS not only provides a great environment within which to study, but also brilliant opportunities for networking with world-leading companies and obtaining graduate opportunities. ‘ECS has surpassed my expectations - I am glad that I have been a part of ECS for the last four years and that I have been able to give something back to the department in terms of helping out at events, obtaining company interest/sponsorship for the Society and organising a range of events for the students.’

Coincidentally, both Chris and Thomas are now working for Imagination Technologies!

All ECS graduates can keep in touch with alumni events and opportunities by maintaining their contact details with the University Alumni Office, and by joining the ECS LinkedIn group: ‘ECS Alumni, University of Southampton’.

For further information on this story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.023 8059 5453.