Go CECS Students!
"We have a lot of gifted students in our College, and it gives me very great pleasure to extend my congratulations on behalf of all staff and students to those that did so well in Semester 2 graduations," said Acting Dean, Professor Mick Cardew-Hall.
The University has recognized its outstanding Honours students since 1963 by awarding the prestigious University Medal at graduation. More than 650 students have been awarded the Medal over the years.
In February 2008 five students from the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science joined other University Medalists on the University Medalist Honour Board recently unveiled by the Vice-Chancellor at University House.
- Bachelor of Engineering with Honours and University Medal: Xiangyun Zhou
- Bachelor of Software Engineering with Honours and University Medal: Torben Schou and Jan Vaughan
- Bachelor of Engineering with Honours/Bachelor of Science and University Medal: Andrew Sutton
- Bachelor of Engineering with Honours/Bachelor of Science and University Medal: Rebecca Dunn
"ANU is unusual in that these awards are only made to First Class Honours students that are supported by a distinguished academic record," said Professor Cardew-Hall.
In other student news, Mayank Daswani, a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) student in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded one of the 2007 Boyapati Computer Science and Mathematics Prizes for First Year students. This is one of several awards made to those students that have achieved the most meritorious results in computer science courses, and pathway level mathematics courses, at their year level.
Mayank says that at school he was always fond of mathematics, computer science and physics, which led to his interest in computing.
"Working in machine and assembly language in my computer systems course gives me a real insight into the way computers actually work so that rather than being a user of computers, a student becomes an innovator in computer science. The range of topics I'm covering is diverse, from analyses of algorithms to functional programming to networks and web design.
"What interests me most is how computer science can help society to grow and prosper by building better, faster and more accurate computers to do all sorts of things from traffic control to construction to e-commerce," he said.
Interestingly, his thoughts on the role of computer science in society mirror those of founder of the prize that he won.
Vijay Boyapati is an alumnus of mathematics and computer science at ANU, currently working as a software engineer for Google News in California, USA. He is passionate about encouraging students to study both computer science and mathematics so that many more graduates can go on to rewarding careers after graduation.
"Mathematics is the foundation of computer science and a solid understanding of the field is important for students if they want to be innovators and not just practitioners," Boyapati said when donating his three-year scholarship support to ANU in 2006.
Boyapati thrived on a mix of mathematics and computer science subjects, winning a University Medal when he graduated with Honours in 2000.
