News Release

Queen's students leapfrog to success in computer game competition

Grant and Award Announcement

Queen's University Belfast

Computer Science students from Queen's University have won three national awards in a recent computer games competition.

Three teams from the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science all picked up crystal in their respective competitions at the national Games Fleadh in County Tipperary, Ireland's largest computer and console games programming festival. The theme this year of the XNA Game Studio Ireland Challenge was based around the well known 'Frogger' game which is currently celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. All teams were required to develop a modern version of 'Frogger'. One team received the award for Best in Visual Engineering from Mr Michael Meagher, Academic Engagement Manager for Microsoft Ireland whilst another team got the award for Best in Game Design and the third team took the overall runner up award in the competition.

Russell Kane, Lecturer in Computer Science at Queen's and the Mentor to the teams said: "This is an exceptional achievement for the students. It is the first time Queen's has entered the competition and to have this level of success at a national level is a huge achievement which reflects the high calibre of students and teaching on the computing courses at Queen's.

"The School this year introduced a new module on the computing courses, 'Tournaments in Computing', which is focused on entering external competitions so students may gain experience in developing and promoting their software in a competitive environment to representatives of the computer gaming profession. It is hoped that through participation in the competitions and opportunity to network with the leading computer gaming professionals that the students will successfully pursue a career in the profession."

Another team from the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was also recently successful in making it through to the final of the recent Microsoft Ireland Imagine Cup. The team were selected by Microsoft as one of the top twelve teams in Ireland through to the final to compete for a place in the World Wide finals in New York City. The Imagine Cup is the world's premier student technology competition. Following their success in the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition, the team have subsequently gone on to enter other competitions with success. The team intend to release a phone application to the public in July.

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For media inquiries please contact Claire O'Callaghan on 00 44 (0) 2890975391 / 07814422572 or c.ocallaghan@qub.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

1. Russell Kane is available for interview. Interview bids to Claire O'Callaghan on 00 44 (0) 2890975391 / 07814422572 or c.ocallaghan@qub.ac.uk

2. Photographs of the winning teams have been issued to picture desks and are available on request.


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