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Four final year computing students attended a champagne reception held in their honour to celebrate winning the Intel sponsored Placement Essay Competition 2008. The competition required students to write an essay about their experiences while on work placement - the work placement forms part of their degree. Each winner will receive a prize of £250 to be donated by Intel on the 22 January 2009.

The winners (and their placement companies) are:

• Richard Cohen who worked for HSBC, Hong Kong
• Ugochukwu Santos-Oputa who worked for IBM, South Bank
• Patrick Smith who worked for Morgan Stanley, Canary Wharf
• Simon Todd who worked for Philips, Redhill

The competition was open to Computing Laboratory students who are registered for a degree with a year in industry component and who had completed their work placement last year. Entrants were asked to reflect upon their experience with their placement company, to consider the broader impact it has had on their life and to write an essay, in no more than 600 words, to help inform others who may also be considering the option.

Year in industry options are available with most degrees offered by the Computing Laboratory. They give students the opportunity to gain work experience with companies located in the UK and overseas. Placements usually last for one year and take place between the student's second year and final year of study. Students get the opportunity to work in real-life, business-critical roles and gain valuable skills which give them an edge in the job market. They also typically perform better in their final year of study. Over half our students choose the year in industry option.

Ugochukwu is studying Computing & Business Administration with a Year in Industry. All the other winners are studying Computer Science with a Year in Industry.

Intel sponsored the competition, providing total prize money of £1000. As well as presenting the winners with their £250 prize cheques, Intel will be running a workshop for second year students to explain their placement scheme which will include advice about the applications process. They have a strong commitment to work experience and are very popular with our computing students who have benefited from placements with Intel for several years.

Here are some extracts from the winning essays:

The competition celebration took place on the 11th December 2008 at the Computing Laboratory, Canterbury campus, University of Kent.

Published 9 January 2009
Contact: M.L.Bowman@kent.ac.uk