Visualise an award at mima

Rare internships are up for grabs as competition prizes for our computing students.

The internships are with either the BBC’s CBeebies channel, Ubisoft Reflections, one of the world’s leading computer games companies, or Loft Music, a Newcastle-based music company.

The University’s Vis (Visualisation) Awards are in their third year, and the competition is open to students from the our School of Computing: second and third years, postgraduate and research.

The competition has the following categories:

• ‘Life’s a pitch’ sponsored by CBeebies
• Computer Games Design*
• Computer Games Programming*
• Modelling*
• Character Animation*
• Digital Music (this prize is sponsored by Loft Music).

The four * categories offer six month-internships with Ubisoft Reflections, which are individually worth the equivalent of a £7,000 salary and the four prize-winners can complete the placements at the end of their studies.

Work placement at CBeebies For the ‘Life’s a pitch’ category, students pitch their idea for a final year film in no more than six minutes, to a panel of CBeebies professionals. The successful student will clinch a work placement at CBeebies, which is currently the UK’s number one children’s preschool channel.

The Vis Awards have also been sponsored by Codeworks, who will award runners-up prizes in five of the categories. Codeworks support the digital sector in the North East. The closing date is Tuesday 21 April, and details are available at Vis Awards

Dr Derek Simpson, Dean of the School of Computing, said: 'These internships give our students invaluable industry experience. It not only gives them a good foothold but also boosts the students’ CVs in a very competitive arena.'

Justin Greetham, Senior Lecturer in Visualisation and Graphical Applications, added: 'In the current economic climate these awards show that we’re helping our students as much as we possibly can. And we’re also promoting businesses in the North East, of which Ubisoft Reflections is a good example.'

Giselle Stewart, General Manager at Ubisoft Reflections said: 'We’re very proud to be sponsoring the Vis Awards this year, as part of our continued work with Teesside. The awards provide a unique opportunity for students to showcase their talents, and with Ubisoft Reflections offering a number of internships as prizes, we are committed to rewarding those who demonstrate the most potential.'

Winners in five categories will be selected by a judging panel that will convene at the University's Centre for Enterprise on Tuesday 5 May. Shortlisted students will pitch their creative computing concepts to the panel, made up of representatives from the University’s School of Computing, Ubisoft and Loft Music . The CBeebies panel will listen to the pitches at the University at the same time. All winners will be decided on the same day, and presented with their awards in a special ceremony at mima at 7.00pm.

---