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Established by the SST’s Corporate Relations & Employability Unit, the Award recognises students who have produced excellent work during their placement year.

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The Award for Professional Excellence (DAPE) was established by the School of Science & Technology's Corporate Relations & Employability Unit (CREU) and seeks to recognise students who have produced excellent work during their placement year.

For the 2022/23 academic year, we're delighted to share that students Sadiyah Saeed, Anika Guraj, Jaffry Jaman, and Siley Malakbaba each received the 2023 Dean’s Award for Professional Excellence (DAPE) from Executive Dean, Professor Rajkumar Roy, on Wednesday, 14 February.

Also there for the presentation of awards was Head of the Department of Computer Science, Professor Golnaz Badkobeh, and Mohson Khan, Head of the Corporate Relations & Employability Unit at the School of Science & Technology.

Award category:  Outstanding contributions to social impact

Studying for a BSc in Computer Science (Professional Pathway), Sadiyah Saeed did her placement at Moneycorp, where she collaborated with HR and the Head of Environmental Social Governance to develop an apprenticeship programme, resulting in hiring 20 apprentices across the Moneycorp business.

Sadiyah also managed Moneycorp’s first Technology Summer Internship programme in the USA within six  months of joining the company. She designed the 10 week internship programme, planned the projects and recruited candidates at career fairs in Orlando, Florida.

Richard Matthews, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Moneycorp, said:

Sadiyah does not wait for work to fall on her lap and instead actively seeks out ways to improve Moneycorp in both
a technical and societal capacity. It is this constant aim to identify and implement solutions for the benefit of
Moneycorp and the team that makes her such a great asset.

Award category:  Outstanding contribution to year-long placement and work-based learning experiences

Anika Gujral, studying for an MEng Biomedical Engineering, undertook a year long placement at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London.

In that time her achievements included: completion of a British Standards Course and examination on the Quality Management System that runs the proper operation of the biomedical engineering departments of many hospitals across UK; completion of a course involving the electrical safety tester device that is used at GOSH; and certified training on the annual maintenance and trouble shooting of a neo-puff ventilator that is mainly used in the bagging circuit of patients.

She also performed solo maintenance of the 18 ABL-90 blood gas analyser machines used at GOSH and commissioned 70 new handheld blood gas analysers and integrated them into the Hospital network.

Raquel Citcovich, Electronics Team Lead, Biomedical Engineering Department at GOSH said:

In her role as Biomedical Engineering student with us, Anika handled a myriad of responsibilities with utmost professionalism. Notable, she undertook tasks such as maintenance and troubleshooting of blood gas analysers and was responsible for assembling babytherms and incubators within the disinfection unit. Furthermore, she adeptly managed checks and repairs on a diverse range of pumps and monitors.

Award category: Outstanding contribution to summer internships

Jaffry Jaman, pursuing a MEng in Aeronautical Engineering, did his placement at the University of Oxford. His work centred around investigating how welds function, particularly in relation to aero engine components like fan blades, which endure challenging conditions during cold entry phases.

To gain insights, he utilised cutting-edge techniques such as Digital Image Correlation, which enabled him to track strain levels, and electron microscopy, allowing him to closely examine intricate microstructures near the weld lines.

Robert Scales, in the third year of his DPhil at Oxford at the time and who worked with Jaffry, said:

Jaffry worked on our research group's UNIQ+ summer project. I saw him substantially develop his research skills and materials science knowledge during this time, as well as supercurricular skills, like presentational skills. During this time Jaffry worked on: understanding tensile testing; Titanium alloys and their sample preparation; digital image correlation; electron and optical microscopy; and code based data analysis. He was very involved with the research and worked well with the rest of the research group.

Award category: Outstanding contribution to year-long placements

Studying for a BSc Computer Science with Placement Year, Siley Malakbaba did her placement at Ernst & Young, which included being assigned to train their staff in being cyber-aware. During this engagement she created the proposal for the Cyber Awareness Month, designing a week of events, creating content for schools, airports and Saudi Arabian nationals.

Siley also hosted Power Bi bootcamps for Ernst & Young's Women in Tech, this led to her getting further recognition in the cyber team and having various managers ask her to train them and handle their data sets.

Senior Manager, Mustajaab Dar, said of Siley:

She has shown a good understanding of the business processes and has collaborated nicely with other fellows and delivered under stringent timelines as a team player.

Reflecting on the awards as a whole this year, Mohson Khan, said:

The DAPE Awards are an annual opportunity to celebrate the success of our winners and all students who have worked hard to secure professional experience and have returned to City equipped for bright futures in their chosen fields

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