DCU alumnus receives 2012 Undergraduate Award

Recent DCU graduate, Fergal Stapleton, has been presented with a gold medal by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, having won the Computer Sciences & Information Technology category in the 2012 Undergraduate Awards – an Ireland-based academic awards programme that identifies top students across the island of Ireland for their innovative undergraduate research. Fergal, who recently graduated in Applied Physics, received the accolade for his project entitled 'Differential Evolution as an Optimization Method for the Thomson Problem'.

The awards ceremony marked the culmination of the Undergraduate Awards Summit, an annual three-day event in Dublin, Ireland that brought together some of the world's most impressive budding academics. These are the top performing entrants in this year's Undergraduate Awards programme, which received 2,890 submissions from third level institutions on the island of Ireland as well as elite universities primarily in the UK, USA, Canada and Ireland.

Addressing the attendees, patron of the awards programme President Higgins commended the students on their remarkable achievement.

"All of the submissions being recognised here today are a reassuring reminder of the great wealth of innovative and imaginative talent that exists amongst our young people – the leaders, policy makers, scientists and artists of the future. I would like to congratulate all of our awardees here today and wish them every success."

A "junior Nobel Prize", the Undergraduate Awards is an initiative that aims to identify and connect the world's top students, while also running a separate programme throughout all third level institutions on the island of Ireland. With 20 categories, it recognises excellence and innovation across the sciences, humanities and creative arts.

Louise Hodgson, Programme Director of the Undergraduate Awards said: "Every year the Undergraduate Awards has recognised outstanding students and graduates, but I think our winners today are the most impressive bunch so far. Congratulations to them all! I know they'll go on to be leaders and pioneers in their fields, and I'm glad the Undergraduate Awards can be one of the first to recognise their work."

Founded in 2008 by Paddy Cosgrave (Web Summit, F.ounders) and Oisin Hanrahan (Handybook), with a Board of Directors chaired by Jim Barry (Blackrock) and the official Patronage of the President of Ireland, the Undergraduate Awards (UA) is an Ireland-based international academic awards programme that works to inspire, support and celebrate undergraduate students, their ideas and research. Receiving thousands of first class projects written within coursework every year, UA identifies the top performing students around the world across each academic discipline and invites them to Ireland for the UA Summit – a three-day pop-up incubation centre geared towards the acceleration of the ideas and personal development of these high-potential students. The 2013 Undergraduate Awards is open from October 1st 2012 and will be open to students across Ireland and the top 100 universities globally. Founding Partners include Google, KPMG, Enterprise Ireland, Ulster Bank, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, HEA and IDA. Further information on the programme can be found at www.undergraduateawards.com.