Thrilled to receive the award, Monica is glad that her excellent academic achievement during her first year has been recognised. “I am incredibly grateful to win the Ede & Ravenscroft prize money,” she tells us. “I found this year challenging, and to see that this has been recognised and rewarded has made me and my family very proud!”

Monica is greatly enjoying her time at Lancaster University, and has found her first year a highly enriching and rewarding experience. “I was attracted to study at Lancaster as it appeared to offer a good degree scheme for people who had not had the opportunity to study computer science before,” she says. “The best thing about the degree programme is that you learn from everything you do. Even if you make mistakes, or decide to experiment further than what was initially assigned, this is encouraged as this way you learn for yourself and not just with the teaching materials.”

In terms of her career aspirations, Monica is certain that her Computer Science degree will be invaluable to her career, being highly relevant across a plethora of industries. “My career aspirations change all the time and I think that is good,” she says. “With computer science I think I can go into many different sectors, as computers are pretty much everywhere now. Having the knowledge of how they work would certainly prove to be valuable in any career.”

Prizes have also been awarded to Katharine Field (Mechanical Engineering), Bhuma Limbu (Chemical Engineering), Luhtu Murphy (Physics), and Isobel Mawby (Theoretical Physics) for outstanding academic achievement in Part I of their respective degrees.