BU student competes in search for a star competition

13 July 2012

Search for a Star finalists highlight key UK universities

DEC student finishes in the top five of national games programming competition

Ashley Gwinnell, a Computing student in the School of Design, Engineering and Computing came fourth out of 150 applicants in the Search for a Star competition.

Organised by Aardvark Swift, a UK-based games development recruitment agency, the competition aims to highlight the UK's finest programming talent. It had applicants from 50 Universities from across the country, and was decided over three rounds.

Dr Christos Gatzidis, Senior Lecturer in Creative Technology at BU said: "I am delighted Ashley has finished in the top five of this. This a great reflection of how our Computing and Creative Technology courses here in the School of Design, Engineering and Computing provide skills which employers in fields such as games development greatly value".

The first round was an initial programming test. The top 25 students from the programming test progressed into the second round, which was a weeklong demo de-bug and feature creation round. The top five students from round two were then invited to Aardvark Swift's Head Office to attend an industry panel interview.

The interview panel consisted of industry experts from Headstrong Games, Relentless Software, Rockstar Leeds and Aardvark Swift. Ashley had an hour long interview with the panel and was asked a range of technical and non-technical questions. The aim of the interview was to give the students an experience of the interview process they can expect in the games industry.

Mark Hope, Recruitment Consultant at Aardvark Swift said: "We're really excited to have a representative from the courses down at BU make it into the top five of this year's Search for a Star. Ashley has shown fantastic programming ability and a deep passion for the games industry throughout the competition."