Creative students have the vision

Talented computing students were rewarded for their creativity at the annual Vis Awards.

Six winning students were offered prestigious internships and work placement opportunities with leading companies after coming out on top in their categories.

The Vis Awards, run by the School of Computing, are designed to recognise and reward animation, games, digital music and software development techniques.

A glitzy ceremony was held at mima on Tuesday 5 May, which involved a champagne reception, buffet, award announcements and networking opportunities.

The winners were selected by a judging panel, after the students had pitched their ideas earlier in the day.

Companies including Ubisoft Entertainment, CBeebies and Loft Music offered internships and work placements to the winning students, which not only provide fantastic career opportunities, but also enable them to make vital contacts within the industry.

Fantastic prizes and networking opportunities Around 100 people attended the third Vis Awards ceremony and the event was hailed as a huge success.

Justin Greetham, Senior Lecturer in Visualisation and Graphical Applications at the University, said the standard of work submitted was excellent.

He added: ‘It’s nice to be able to reward the students for their efforts. To be acknowledged in this way is a super opportunity, not only because it offers prizes in the form of internships, but also because there is a networking event where finalists are invited to exchange business cards and engage with the digital content creators that are based in the North East.’

And the winners are The winners and runners-up in each of the six categories were:

• Games Programming Award
  winner - Ole Kristian Homelien
  runner-up - Alexandre Laurent
• Games Design Award
  winner - Justin Lim
  runner-up - Callum Macarthur
• Digital Music Award
  winner – Sara Ross
  runner-up – Adam Gatenby
• Life’s A Pitch
  winner – Sarah Parsons
  runner-up – Lindsey Hinton
• Character Animation Award
  winner - Wei Xing Yong
  runner-up - James Taylor
• Modelling Award
  winner – Peter Adamson
  runner-up – Richard Gardner.

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