Software genius

Nicoll Hunt, who graduated in applied computing this summer, has received national recognition of his software engineering abilities at the Scotland IS Young Software Engineer of the Year awards at the Royal Museum of Scotland. Nicoll was awarded £750 for the third prize, sponsored by Panasonic. He received the award for his senior honours project: the automated formal computer testing package. This software package was developed to illustrate the possibilities of using software as a tool for both assessing and improving students' IT skills. The package allows the creation of unique tests that ask students to perform a variety of IT-related tasks using common office applications. The software evaluates the student's performance and offers constructive criticism. User evaluation carried out on the software proved that not only was it more enjoyable for students to use than traditional testing methods, it also improved the students' performances.

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