Third ECS student in UKESF Scholar of the Year competition

Ashley Robinson, final year student on the MEng programme, Electronic Engineering with Artificial Intelligence, has been named as one of four finalists in the competition for this year’s Scholar of the Year, organized by the UK Electronic Skills Foundation.

The winner will be announced at the National Microelectronics Institute annual dinner in London on Thursday 21 November.

Ashley has held a UKESF Scholarship since 2012 and has undertaken two work placements with Cambridge Silicon Radio as part of the programme, working on Near Field Communication with the company’s digital team.

He is positive about the opportunities created by the UKESF programme: ‘It has been of great benefit in terms of consolidating professional skills in the work placements, and helping develop soft skills as well as technical skills in the summer schools’, he said. ‘Also it has been very good to meet engineers from different backgrounds.’

Ashley is currently working intensively on the final-year Group Design Project. His group’s client, Captec, is a leading manufacturer of ruggedized computers, owned and managed by ECS alumnus and Visiting Professor Max Toti. The project aims to provide better monitoring inside the PCs through the incorporation of a UEFI custom application.

Ashley is the third ECS student to reach the final of the Scholar of the Year competition since it was instituted in 2012. In that year ECS student Adam Malpass was named winner, and in 2013 Samuel Hipkin was runner-up. ‘We are very proud of our students’ achievements in UKESF,’ said Professor Neil White, Head of ECS.

‘They have an excellent record in achieving Scholarships, but to have three students reach the finals of Scholar of the Year is outstanding recognition of their ability to transfer their skills from the classroom to the industrial context.’