It may sound like a reality TV show, but it's the best way for budding computer scientists to get ahead. BrainAcademy 2005, which opens today, is Queen Mary, University of London's competition to find the most talented individuals in the country. The prizes include places on Queen Mary's undergraduate and postgraduate courses, PC and software bundles and unique work experience opportunities. You could even end up working for us.
Dr Paul Curzon, who is in charge of the competition, reassured Builder UK that unlike competitions to find pop stars of the future, looks aren't important: "We're looking for ability so it's all down to talent, but in a wider sense", said Curzon. "One of the things we're trying to get across is the idea of diversity. There are lots of different aspects to computer science — it's not just the stereotype view of being just about computers. It's about people and understanding psychology and society".
The competition is open to people of all ages, and for the first time this year the prizes include two postgraduate course places with bursaries, in addition to an undergraduate place. The undergraduate winner will be offered a place on a degree course in the Department of Computer Science at Queen Mary with all tuition fees paid, and runners-up may be offered non-funded degree places. The postgraduate bursaries are worth £1,500, with one place available for someone with a non-IT background on the MSc Information Technology course, and one for someone with a computer science degree on one of Queen Mary's advanced MSc courses.
The competition involves completing an online quiz, a programming challenge and — for those that pass the first two stages — interviews with staff from Queen Mary's. The quiz consists of twelve questions, the answers to which can be found spread across the Internet. Entrants are expected to find the answers through searching, in an effort to test people's research skills. To progress to the next stage you need to get all twelve questions right, but you can have as many attempts as you like.
Queen Mary's is keen for people who don't have a background in computing to enter. "I'd certainly like to encourage people, whether they think they're interested in computer science or not, to just do it because you might be surprised by some of the things you find out about" said Curzon.
BrainAcademy was first launched in 2003, and was won that year by Adam Kramer from North London. He's now in his second year as an undergraduate student at Queen Mary. This year's winners will start their courses in 2006.
One of the prizes on offer is the chance of a work placement at CNET Networks UK, the publishers of ZDNet UK. Other groups supporting the competition include the BCS HCI Group and Soda Creative.
You can enter BrainAcademy 2005 online.
