The University of Southampton is delighted to announce that leading investment management firm Winton has agreed to support academic prizes for students in Computer Science for a further three years.

Winton’s commitment - made initially in 2010 - recognizes the high quality of student achievement in Computer Science, as well as reinforcing the importance of prizes such as this in building strong recruitment to the subject area and also to the University of Southampton.

The University of Southampton has a long tradition of excellence in Computer Science and draws leading students from the UK and around the world. In 2013 the department was awarded the UK’s only Regius Chair of Computer Science, which is currently held by Professor Dame Wendy Hall. Over the last 20 years the department has made fundamental contributions to the discipline, including the development of agent technologies, data science and cyber science, as well as the foundation of Web Science as an academic discipline. Computer Science graduates from Southampton also have an outstanding reputation for graduate employability – holding top place in the Good University Guide 2017.

Winton’s philanthropic support will enable two prizes in the undergraduate programme: for the top student in Computer Science Year 1; and the top final-year student on the four-year MEng programme in Computer Science. The third annual prize will be awarded to the top student on the one-year postgraduate MSc in Software Engineering.

Jamie Read, who won a Winton Prize in 2016, commented: ‘I was very pleased to receive the Winton Prize on the basis of my results in the first year of my degree course. It is a welcome acknowledgement of the work involved in undertaking this degree programme, as well as a great encouragement to maintain this high level of achievement in the future.’

Christine Simpson, head of Academic Engagement at Winton, said: ‘Every year, we are so impressed by the quality of the students at Southampton, and we are delighted to renew our sponsorship of these prizes to reward academic excellence in Computer Science.’

‘Winton are one of the world’s leading companies and it is a great honour for us that they are continuing to support student achievement in Computer Science,’ said Professor Paul Lewin, Head of the Department of Electronics and Computer Science.

‘We very much look forward to developing our relationship with Winton over the next three years and welcoming the company to ECS to work with our students.’

An autonomous racing car created by Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) undergraduate students from the University of Southampton has qualified for the final of an intercontinental intelligent racing competition.

The ‘Soton GT’ team, which built its high speed vehicle in a fourth year undergraduate group project, will now face rivals from Europe, the Middle East and Africa later this month at the EMEA NXP Cup in Munich, Germany.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering MEng students Lawrence Harlow and Owen Johnson and Computer Science MEng student Adam Piekarski entered their car into a Qualification Event in Leeds on Wednesday 29th March, finishing in second with a time of 20.4 seconds.

“We’ve had our eyes set on this competition since our group project started in September,â€? Team Leader Lawrence explained. “We’re thrilled to reach the final and can’t wait to set a fast time in Munich. The brief has been to create an autonomous racer the size of a radio controlled car. You hear a lot about Tesla and Google’s self-driving cars in the news, so it’s been fascinating to take one footstep into that area.â€?

The Soton GT racer, which is 295mm in length and weighs 1098g, has been programmed to guide itself along a white track at speeds of up to 4m per second. It must negotiate a race layout that is unknown to competitors until the day of the event and includes chicanes, bumps, crossroads and a tunnel.

“Everyone has really enjoyed the challenge of developing the software and control system to navigate the track,â€? Lawrence added. “I’ve really liked having the opportunity to utilise the engineering knowledge we’ve built up during our degree alongside a platform for project management. It’s been quite a learning experience to work in a group as you can all develop your elements simultaneously but everything has to then work together.â€?

The students’ autonomous racer is directed by a line scan camera, which monitors the black edges of the track to trigger a steering mechanism and motor differential. The team added speed sensors and a camera feed as they sought to improve speed and cornering during the project, improving a lap time on a University test track from 20 to nine seconds.

“We’ve developed the car to adapt to its environment as it needed to deal with changing parameters – such as light levels – to optimise performance,â€? Lawrence explained. “At one point it was power sliding around corners! We actually set it at a lower speed in the qualification round so it would definitely handle the features and qualify.â€?

The fourth year group project, which also included MEng students Robin Taylor and Max Stenham, has been supervised by Professor Kirk Martinez of the Web and Internet Science research group in ECS.

The EMEA NXP Cup final will take place in Munich on the 27th and 28th of April and include competitors from qualification events in Germany, France, Romania, Czech Republic, Morocco and the UK.

Pictured above: (left to right) Lawrence Harlow, Robin Taylor, Adam Piekarski, Owen Johnson, Max Stenham