Melanie Grimsley
LLM Access to Justice
Melanie Grimsley is a writer, speaker and advocate for disability rights. She is a campaigner for the charity Changing Faces and her Master's dissertation centred on Discrimination Law and Visible Difference. 'Mel' from the series 'The Outside of the Inside' by photographer, Martina Holmberg, won the 2025 Taylor Wessing Portrait prize and will hang in the National Portrait Gallery in London from 13 November 2025 until 8 February 2026.
Reflecting on her portrait, Melanie said,
"Representation in all spaces, especially art, matters. I hope the portrait challenges stereotypes and reminds people that every face fits. Our identity is not something to be fixed, but to be celebrated."
“For so long I was defined by the gaze of others, but choosing to appear in a portrait has taught me what it means to truly be seen. Every face fits, and mine, once something I tried to hide, now sits proudly in the light. This portrait challenges the stereotypes built into society and technology and reminds us that identity is not something to be fixed, but to be celebrated. I hope that by looking at it, others can find the courage to accept themselves too, and step into their own light.”
Ciara Fraser
BA Hons Interaction Design (Digital Design)
A 2025 graduate of Ulster University with a degree in Interaction Design, Ciara was the winner of the Service Design category at the Graduate IDI Awards in October, with her final year project ‘Convo’. Ciara worked on and developed Convo from an initial idea on a piece of paper, to a fully fledged final outcome over the course of nine months.
Convo is a digital product which allows people living with motor neurone disease (MND) to continue their conversations with their own voice. It utilises features such as text to speech, voice and message banking, that are all available on one platform. Ciara’s motivation and aim behind creating Convo was to prevent the communication barrier that a MND diagnosis creates. Drawing on her own personal experience, Ciara used the skills she gained while studying at Ulster University to create a product that could have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Since graduating Ciara is now using this same motivation at the award-winning Belfast company, Inclutech. Their mission is to create innovative public and personal safety solutions with inclusion at the core - ensuring that everyone, especially those most vulnerable, are protected and heard.
“A profoundly useful example of a service responding to an urgent medical need, in allowing those with MND to continue to engage in their own voice.”
- IDI Judges’ comments
Adam Bell
BA Hons Animation
Adam Bell and fellow First Class BA Hons Animation graduates Amy Long & Caity Kerr collaborated closely on their final year award winning short film, Comfort Zone.
Adam worked closely on the story, cinematography and art direction of Comfort Zone. The project set out to reflect the lived experiences of design students today, exploring themes such as navigating social challenges in a post-pandemic world and the realities of entering a demanding yet rewarding creative industry.
Bringing the project to life visually was a highlight, with the team fully immersing themselves in every stage of the creative process.
Since graduating, Adam has taken on the role of Designer at Crown Creative, where they are involved in shaping hospitality brands across a range of sectors. Their day-to-day work includes graphic design, animation and photography, contributing to projects for hotels, local theatres and gyms. Working alongside a talented creative team, Adam continues to build on the skills developed at Ulster University and looks forward to furthering growth within the creative industry.
Amy Long
BA Hons Animation
Amy Long was part of the trio alongside Adam Bell & Caity Kerr who's incredible hard work on their short animation, Comfort Zone, won them the best animation at the most recent IDI Graduate Awards.
Amy focused on bringing the main character, Charli, to life from animating, sculpting, texturing and rigging her, while also leading previs and contributing to story boards and concept art.
Since graduating, Amy has embraced exciting new opportunities, spending three months as a Junior 3D Animator at Taunt Studios before joining Poli Vision as a Virtual Art Department Trainee. There, she now works daily with motion-capture data, continually refining her animation and performance skills. In recognition of her outstanding work, Amy was awarded the prestigious IDI Graduate Design Award for Animation.
Caity Kerr
BA Hons Animation
Completing the award-winning trio, Caity played a key role across multiple stages of the animation process to finalise the group's short animation, Comfort Zone.
Caity was responsible for designing, modelling and texturing all 3D assets used within the film’s interior environments and key props, while also assisting with asset creation for exterior environments. Alongside this, she contributed to aspects of the story narrative and supported the animation process through clean-up animation.
While the production was demanding, Caity has said that she found the experience extremely rewarding, enjoying the opportunity to explore a wide range of creative roles and further develop her technical and artistic skills. The team’s dedication was recognised when Comfort Zone was awarded Best Animation at the Graduate IDI Awards 2025.
Since graduating, Caity has joined the design department at local animation studio Flickerpix, where she works on character design and assists with background development, continuing to build on the strong creative foundation established during her studies at Ulster University.
Noel Hamill
BA Hons Business Studies
Noel Hamill was recently appointed as Chief Marketing Officer at Expereo, the global managed network solutions provider helping enterprises connect their people, places, and clouds anywhere in the world. A graduate of Ulster University, he has spent more than two decades leading marketing, brand, and go-to-market strategy for high-growth, technology-enabled businesses across telecoms, SaaS, and e-commerce, including senior leadership roles at ParcelLab and Forsta.
His career has focused on building category-defining brands, scaling PE-backed companies internationally, and aligning sales and marketing around measurable commercial outcomes.
In his role at Expereo, Noel is responsible for global brand, demand generation, and customer marketing as the company accelerates its growth with large multinational enterprises and strategic partners.
Originally from Belfast and now based in London, he remains closely connected to Ulster University and is passionate about social mobility, mentoring young talent, and showing how a career that started in Northern Ireland can lead to global leadership roles.
