UCLan students win regional digital industry competition

19 July 2016

Talented web designers bag top student prize at Big Chip Awards

Budding digital gurus from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) have won a top regional industry award.

The three second year web design and development students won the Little Chip Student Award at the annual Big Chip Awards, which is the is the UK's longest running digital industry awards and the biggest outside of London.

Jason Dumont, Ant Harrold and Rebecca Marginson beat off stiff competition from other regional universities for their new movie rating app R8, which aims to create a better way for film goers to give feedback on new movies. The app includes the chance to rate a film across seven different areas from the performance to soundtrack and the team felt that it would offer more insight into a film’s quality than the current star rating system or long-winded reviews.

Jason commented: “It felt amazing to win the competition and we as a group did not expect it at all. Taking part gave us a chance to test what we had learnt in university in the real world and the overall event is well known and promoted within the northern digital sector."

The judging panel commented that the students had created 'a very current application and lots of people are trying this - but this student work stands out. Well thought through and executed.'

"Taking part gave us a chance to test what we had learnt in university in the real world and the overall event is well known and promoted within the northern digital sector."

Web design and development course leader Gavin Allanwood, congratulated his students.

“This is the first time students studying BSc (Hons) Web Design and Development have entered the Big Chip Awards and so I am really delighted that they won,” he said.

“Jason, Anthony and Rebecca are in their second year of the course and this success gives encouragement for them to do even better in their final year. I have no doubt that potential employers will be keeping a close eye on this UCLan course and these clever designers.”

The Big Chip Awards celebrates all things digital in the north of England, with special categories for start-ups, micro-businesses, students and apprentices. It is run by trade association, Manchester Digital working with partners including Digital Union in the North East, Creative Sheffield, and user groups and networks in Leeds and Liverpool.