Sean Carlin (22) crowns a four year award-winning performance at Magee University this afternoon with his most prized accolade to date, a first class honours degree in computer science.
It was only when he took up A-level computing at St Columb’s College that Sean realised he had a passion for the subject. And he hasn’t looked back since.
As well as achieving his BSc Hons Computer Science, which he receives at the University of Ulster summer graduations held at the Millennium Forum in Derry~Londonderry, he has won the Kainos software company prize for the best student project in the discipline.
Sean, whose home is at Upper Galliagh Road, on the outskirts of the city, set out to produce a low budget indoor people/asset location tracking prototype -- a device that would be useful in a range of settings, for instance in a hospital,on factory floor, a multi-story building, a supermarket etc.
And he did it at a cost of around £150, compared to the thousands of pounds’ price tag on commercially produced similar devices.
He says: “By using electronic components which I could buy over the counter here, and avoiding high cost licensing arrangements that can come with devices that are currently on the market, I was able to produce one that would be useful particularly to budget-conscious small and medium enterprises.”
At the end of his first year, the software and consultancy services company Asidua awarded Sean a full scholarship and a year’s work placement – which together have been worth £25,000 – and he also scooped prizes from two other software firms, Liberty Information Technology and Lucid Interactive.
Furthermore Sean acquired publications in two international journals during the four year computer science degree. His paper on “Cloud Computing Technologies” was published in the International Journal of Cloud Computing and Services Science (IJ-CLOSER) and his paper on “Cloud Computing Security” was published in the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence (IJACI).
Now assiduous Sean is looking forward to joining Belfast-based Asidua as a software engineer. He says: “I had a exciting time at Magee University. The computing resources, facilities and staff were excellent. I would like to acknowledge Anthony McCourt for his early encouragement and also
Dr Kevin Curran for his support and guidance throughout the year.”