Alumni support aids ECS students as they embark on global adventures

Undergraduate students in Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) are embarking on adventures across the globe this summer with financial support from ECS alumni.

The donations from alumni to the ECS Student Development Fund are enabling students to follow their interests across a wide range of activities. Grants from the Fund were open to application from all undergraduate students, and were awarded on the criteria of activities that are charitable or educational, that advance personal development, or will be of value to the broader community.

One of the most ambitious activities is the Mongolia Charity Rally. A team of seven students, from ECS and Geophysics, were granted an award towards a 10,000-mile journey this summer, from Southampton to Ulaanbaatar. The students left Southampton on Saturday 7 July and will travel through 22 countries to deliver two ambulances to the people of Mongolia. When they arrive in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, they will donate the ambulances and other medical equipment to Go Help, a charity which works with local communities in Central Asia to improve access to education and healthcare facilities.

“Useful patient transport in Mongolia is in incredibly short supply," says Alex Forward, one of the students in this team, "made worse by the country’s poor road conditions. We are working directly with the charity Go Help to ensure the vehicles are put to immediate use after we deliver them.” The students' progress can be tracked on their website.

Electrical Engineering student Alex Coleman Cole has received £500 towards an expedition to the Fiji Islands. While there, Alex aims to help members of the local community by volunteering at a local school to teach English. He will also assist with construction projects on a primary school and water tanks. He also hopes to learn about the sea turtle conservation programme and swim with sharks and manta rays.

A group of four students will be cycling from London to Budapest in August. The journey of over 1200 miles takes in eight countries, and the team aims to complete the ride in 25 days.

Students have also been granted awards to provide backstage support for University of Southampton productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival; to volunteer at the Game Developers’ Conference in Germany, and to teach at a mission in the Philippines. A computer science student has also received funding to help set up an online support network for Libyan students in the UK.

Professor Neil White, Head of ECS, commented: “These are fantastic opportunities for our students, and I wish them the best of luck with their different endeavours. ECS and our students are very grateful to ECS alumni for their support which has made a significant difference to our students' abilities to undertake these challenging activities."

For further information on this story contact: Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

See also: ECS Alumni Network on LinkedIn