Snowflake Code-Off winner gains summer internship

Innovative Southampton software company Snowflake Software held a Code-Off competition in the ECS Zepler Computer Lab last month, with the first prize being a summer internship working in the company’s Southampton office.

The competition was open to all ECS Computer Science students from years 1, 2, and 3, and the challenge was to design a web-based user interface for Snowflake’s GO Publisher Workflow product. The winner, against some excellent results from the group taking part, was Harry Cutts, second-year student in ECS, studying Computer Science with Mobile and Secure Systems.

Eddie Curtis, Snowflake’s Chief Technology Officer, commented: ‘One of the things about the Code-Off that never fails to surprise me is the amount that these guys can achieve in a single day with no advanced warning of the problem they will face. The standard was very high, making it tough to pick a winner, but Harry managed to win us over through the combination of thoughtful user interface design, choosing a good selection of technologies to apply and underpinning the whole ting with some sound engineering principles.’

Harry will work with Snowflake’s development team over the summer and is looking forward to the placement: ‘It sounds like a great place to work,’ he said, ‘and I’ve heard good things about it from Henco.' Last year's Code-Off was won by Hendrik (Henco) Appel.

Ian Painter, Snowflake MD and co-founder of the company, talked about the relationship between the company and ECS in a recent interview in Training and Simulation Forum: "[W]e invest pretty heavily in establishing relationships with the ‘best of the best’ – in a very competitive environment – with students at Southampton University, for example. Sometimes that relationship exists for two years before they join us – and the results are we have a competent, motivated and innovative team of people driving this company forward."

Read more about the Code-Off on the Snowflake Software website.