22 October 2005: CSSA ICT Student of the Year Award
Rhodes Computer Science Masters Student Best in Eastern Cape
At
its annual banquet on 22 October 2005, the Eastern Cape Chapter of the
Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) announced that Ingrid Brandt is the
recipient of the IT Student of the Year award for 2005.
Any registered student at an Eastern Cape tertiary institution is eligible for the award. In reaching its decision, the judging panel considers the following criteria: academic performance, a successful ICT project completed, additional departmental or peer support work done, ICT industry work, and/or community involvement in an ICT field. Nominees should prominently exhibit and display the qualities which distinguish success in the ICT Industry
Ingrid is currently a Masters student in the Computer Science Department at Rhodes University. She was nominated for the award by one of her supervisors, Professor Alfredo Terzoli. "Ingrid has been an excellent student during her time at Rhodes", said Prof. Terzoli, "and has made an important contribution to the deployment of Information Technology in underprivileged schools in the Eastern Cape". This topic is close to her heart and is also the subject of her MSc research project, which deals with models of Internet connectivity and networking in secondary schools in the Eastern Cape, with a view to ICT integration. In September she presented a paper on her research entitled "Wireless Communication for Previously Disadvantaged Secondary Schools in Grahamstown, South Africa" at the Southern African Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference. Her project is supported by the Centre of Excellence in Distributed Multimedia, in the Computer Science Department with funding from Telkom, Business Connexion, Verso Technologies, Comverse and the government’s THRIP programme.
In addition to her community involvement, Ingrid has been very active on the Rhodes campus, particularly in the student-run Rhodes University Computer Users Society (RUCUS), which she has served as president, vice-president and secretary at various times. Under her leadership, RUCUS has also increased its involvement in community outreach to the disadvantaged schools in the Grahamstown area.
This is the second time that the award has gone to a Rhodes Computer Science student. Guy Halse won the award in 2002.
"I am delighted that Ingrid has won this prestigious award", said Professor George Wells, head of the Computer Science Department. "It is wonderful recognition of the great contributions that she has made, both on campus and in the underprivileged schools of our community".
