The top students in computer science at Stellenbosch University earned collectively about R40 000 in prize money for their hard work during 2015.

The awards, sponsored by industry partners such as Barclays, VasTech, IBM, Praelexis and 4iMobile, were handed over during a special ceremony on Thursday 7 April 2016.

The Van der Walt medal for the best third-year student, sponsored by Barclays, was awarded to Mr Jaco Smit, while Mr Nicolaas Weideman received the award for the best honours student, sponsored by VasTech.

The award for the best honours project, sponsored by IBM, went to Mr Chris Coetzee.

Barclays also sponsored the awards for the best first-year and second-year students. These went to Mr Charl Cilliers and Mr Francois Smit respectively.

The following students received honourable mentions: Ms Sarah Selkirk, Mr Brian Schirmacher, Mr Elrich Groenewald and Mr Pierre le Roux.

The award for the best student in machine learning (a computer science module) in 2015 went to Mr Stuart Robertson. The prize money was sponsored by Praelexis.

Mr Pierre le Roux was awarded for his hard work in mobile systems development (a computer science module) with prize money sponsored by 4iMobile.

Mr Liam Baker, Mr Chris Coetzee and Mr Jean Breytenbach were rewarded for being the best SU team at the ACM Inter-College Programming competition held at the University of Cape Town in 2015.

Photo: Anton Jordaan