Posted: 18th June 2018

This year’s Group Design Practical culminated in an exhibition and formal presentation held in the department on 9 May. Teams of five to six second year undergraduates had worked on their chosen projects since January, battling it out for four £500 prizes.

Many of the challenges were set, or sponsored by, industry partners. The judging panel consisted of one representative from each of the sponsors – GResearch, Palantir, Vodafone and Oxford’s Department of Computer Science. Each industry partner awarded a prize based upon their own criteria. The Department Prize was awarded for the best presentation.

Teams chose a challenge from 14 different project briefs proposed by industry partners and department colleagues. Part of the work was to undertake a proper requirements analysis, working with their project mentor.

Team 2 won the Palantir Group Project Prize with its ‘Cryptocurrency Correlations’ project. The team members were Marilena Bescuca, Andreea Stanciu, Joohyun Yoo, Debjit Mandal, Matthew Hillman and John Mewes. Joe Pitt-Francis was their mentor, and this project was supported by the investment company OxFORD Asset Management.

Team 8 was awarded the GResearch Prize for its ‘Fake News’ project. The team consisted of Zihan Ye, Eleanor Williams, Barbara Bilakiewicz, Max Timbs, Thomas Foster and Andrei-Alexandru Radoi. Their mentors were Helena Webb, Jason Nurse and Ross Gales.

Team 10 received the Presentation Prize for its project ‘Carbon Intensity and Smart Devices’. Team members were Denitsa Markova, Alexandru Strimbu, Zihang Lai, Zhenxian Yang, Jan Bialas and Fanny Duneau. The group was mentored by Professor Alex Rogers.

Finally, the Vodafone Prize went to Team 11 for a project in collaboration with GResearch. The team consisted of Edward Salkield, Hristo Venev, Xinyue Tong, Oliver Weller-Davies, Anna Whitmore and Annazita Barry. They were mentored by Senior Researcher Jiaoyan Chen.

All second year undergraduates reading Computer Science, Computer Science & Philosophy or Mathematics & Computer Science took part in the Group Design Practical. It is designed to allow the students to practise their skills learnt previously on the course, and helps them develop and apply theory already learnt. It also helps develop team-working abilities, and project and time management skills.

Companies interested in sponsoring projects or prizes in future years, or wanting to learn more, contact Leanne.Carveth@cs.ox.ac.uk