Prizes & awards

UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering takes pride in recognising and celebrating outstanding academic achievements and contributions to the field.

Photographs taken throughout the engineering dead awards

Our exclusive prize ceremony gives award winners, guests, industry sponsors and school representatives the chance to reflect on their accomplishments during this special event.

UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering Awards 

We’re proud to partner with a diverse range of industry groups and institutions to recognise the hard work and dedication of our students. Our annual awards include individual and group prizes.  

  • Prize Name
    Winner Name

    The Ben Rudzyn Memorial Prize

    TBA

    The Displayr Comp4931 Prize, 1st Place

    Harrison Scott

    Imc Pacific Comp3121, 1st Place

    Joanna Lin

    The Displayr Comp4931 Prize, 3rd Place

    James Stevens

    The Imc Pacific Comp3121 Prize, 2nd Place

    James Balajan

    The Imc Pacific Comp3121 Prize, 3rd Place

    Ramachandran Kaniyur

    The Macquarie Seng2021 Group Prize

    AT3K Group: Arthur Wang; Kaivalya Soman; Katrina Ding; Kelly Zhou; Tim Zhang

    Murray Allen Prize in Computer Science

    Kevin Zhu

    Norman Foo Memorial Best Research Paper Prize

    David Nguyen

    Optiver Prize

    Sourdough group: Nikhil Ahuja; James Furlan; Sean Morota-Chu; Rue Teh; Aditya Kishore

    The Anita Borg Prize

    Giuliana De Bellis

    The Thoughtworks Seng2011 Prize

    Alex Brown

    The Wargaming Sydney COMP3421 Prize

    Rory Golledge

    Jump Trading Australia Comp3231 Prizes

    Zhizhou Ma

    Jump Trading Australia Comp3231/9201/3891/9283 Prize, 2nd Place

    Jason Sengmany

    Jump Trading Australia Comp3231/9201/3891/9283 Prize, 3rd Place

    Nanway Chan

    Jump Operations Australia Comp3222 Digital Circuits and Systems Prize

    Yuqi Fu

  • Prize name Prize winners
    The Amadeus COMP9322 Prize Marhadiasha Kusumawardhana
    The Atlassian COMP2511, 1st Prize Jonathan Clark
    The Atlassian COMP2511, 2nd Prize Ray Clark
    Arista Networks COMP9242 Prize James Nugraha
    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize, 1st Place Vivian Dang
    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize, 2nd Prize Nicholas Malecki
    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize, 3rd Place Lucy Qiu
    The Hero of Operating Systems Prize Yu Hou
    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize, 1st Place Sean Zammit
    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize, 2nd Place Michael Gribben
    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize, 3rd Place Nanway Chen
    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize, 1st Place Chengyan Yao
    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize, 2nd Place Ryan Fallah
    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize, 3rd Place James Davidson
    The Jane Street COMP6752 Prize, 1st Place Courtney Darville
    The Jane Street COMP6752 Prize, 2nd Place Vincent Jackson
    The Jane Street COMP6752 Prize, 3rd Place Vivian Dang
    The Norman Foo Memorial Best Research Paper Prize Annette Spooner
    The Microsoft Performance Prize for Year 3, 1st Place Andrew Kaploun
    The Niel van der Westhuizen COMP4121 Prize Felix Lempriere
    The Optiver COMP6771 Prize Kevin Luxa
    The ROKT COMP2041 Prize Chengyan Yao
    The UpGuard COMP3411 Prize Ryan Barry
    The UpGuard COMP3511 Prize Kangying Lin
    The UpGuard COMP6714 Prize Xiaohan Zhu
    The UpGuard COMP9243 Prize Michael Gribben
    The UpGuard COMP9319 Prize Andrew Kaploun
    The UpGuard COMP9444 Prize Aaron Blackwell
    The Wargaming Sydney COMP6741 Prize Ian Dunkerley

    The Optiver SENG3011 Group Prize

    Sophie Collins
    Thomas Lo
    Erin Moss
    Madison Phillips
    Michelle Seeto
    The Murray Allen Prize in Computer Science Benjamin Sho
    The Anita Borg Prize - 1st Prize Gabrielle Younes
    The Anita Borg Prize - 2nd Prize Amy Zhou

    The Macquarie Seng2021 Group Prize

    Alexander Georges
    Veeraj Sharma
    Allen Wu
    Monica He
    Sheina Tengara
  • Prize Name

    Winner Name

    Amadeus COMP9322 Prize

    Ho Kim

    Atlassian COMP2511 – 1st Place

    Nanway Chen

    Atlassian COMP2511 – 2nd Place

    Ethan Brown

    Atlassian COMP2521 – 1st Place

    Tim Zhang

    Atlassian COMP2521 – 2nd Place

    Ya-Ting Chang

    Google Third Year Prize

    Yifan He

    Murray Allen Prize For Computer Science

    Emily Chen

    Niel Van Der Westhuizen COMP4121 Prize

    Ethan Brown

    Norman Foo Memorial Best Research Paper Prize

    Qian Ge

    Palantir Technologies Prize

    Yu Liu

    QuantumLinx COMP2111 Prize

    Kenvin Yu

    ROKT COMP2041 Prize

    Oscar Cowdery Lack

    The Anita Borg Award

    Annie Liu

    The Ben Rudzyn Memorial COMP2121 – Term 1 Prize

    Mike Liu

    The Ben Rudzyn Memorial COMP2121 – Term 2 Prize

    Michael Zhang

    The Department Of Defence, Graduate Office COMP3331 Term 1 Prize

    Chun-Chu Chen

    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize – 1st Place

    Jessica Theodosius

    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize – 2nd Place

    Emmet Murray

    The Displayr COMP4931 Prize – 3rd Place

    Ryan Barry

    The Exablaze COMP3222 Digital Circuits And Systems Prize

    Matthew Turner

    Imc Pacific COMP3121 Prize – 1st Place

    Antoni Dimitriadis

    Imc Pacific COMP3121 Prize – 2nd Place

    Kevin Zhu

    Imc Pacific COMP3121 Prize – 3rd Place

    Trung Do

    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize – 1st Place

    Ramachandran Sundareswaran Kaniyur

    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize – 2nd Place

    Harrison Scott

    The Jane Street COMP3141 Prize – 3rd Place

    Xue Zhong

    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize – 1st Place

    Sidney Pham

    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize – 2nd Place

    Madeleine Abed

    The Jane Street COMP3161 Prize – 3rd Place

    Shaobo Zhuang

    The Macquarie Performance Prize For Year 1 – 1st Place

    Zac Kologlu

    The Macquarie Performance Prize for Year 1 – 2nd Place

    Hayes Choy

    The Macquarie Performance Prize for Year 1 – 3rd Place

    Mrinaank Sinha

    The Macquarie Performance Prize For Year 2 – 1st Place

    Xuan Yi

    The Macquarie Performance Prize for Year 2 – 2nd Place

    Ramachandran Sundareswaran Kaniyur

    The Macquarie Performance Prize for Year 2 – 3rd Place

    Oscar Winton

    Cowdery Lack

    The Metamako/Arista COMP9242 Prize

    Matthew Phillips

    The Recruit Holdings COMP4128

    Yifan He

    The Wargaming Sydney COMP3421 Prize

    Zhenyu Yao

    The Wargaming Sydney COMP6741 Prize

    Madeleine Kyng

    The WiseTech Global COMP4001 Prize

    Brittany Evat

    SENG2011 Prize – ThoughtWorks

    Debao Jian

    Jack Callander

    Heather Cox

    Richard Liu

    Wei Chen

    SENG2021 Prize – Macquarie Group

    David Nichani

    Junkuan Wang

    Mitchell Johnston

    Stephanie Gouw

    Wan Hern Ching

    SENG3011 Prize – Optiver

    Andi Yao

    Dennis Gann

    Harrison Scott

    Terry Agapitos

    SENG3011 Runner up Prize – Optiver

    Anqi Zhu

    Amir Harambasic

    Matthew Ta

    Phalla Ratanak Kim

    Ryan Barry

    Usman Haidar

  • Ben Rudzyn Memorial Prize

    In recognition of the life of Ben Rudzyn and his commitment to UNSW’s wider community, and for his contribution to both computing and biomedical engineering at UNSW, the CSE School has established "The Ben Rudzyn Memorial Prize".

    This Prize recognizes the outstanding achievements of a student (undergraduate or postgraduate) in the School of Computer Science and Engineering who has been enrolled here for at least (2 years or 6 terms). 

    About Ben Rudzyn

    Ben Rudzyn was the 2006 University Medallist for Computer Engineering. He was an outstanding student who arrived at UNSW in 2001 from North Sydney Boys High, completed a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and Masters in Biomedical Engineering over the next five years and earned a series of scholarships and awards. He also participated in International Exchange at the University of Toronto, Canada. Among his academic coups Ben developed a groundbreaking robot audition system for his undergraduate thesis.

    Ben epitomised the true meaning of friendship. He highly valued the sense of community spirit at UNSW, volunteering however and whenever he could and also wholeheartedly participating in whatever social opportunities were on offer (such as Yellow Shirts/O Week, Uni Reviews, Clubs, Open Days, Student Representative, and mentoring.) He is remembered for his quick wit, his sense of humor, his honesty, his compassion and his care of others.  

    After graduation, his software development talents excelled in his career as a Research and Development Engineer at Australian Hearing’s National Acoustic Laboratory. 

    Everything Ben was working towards ended a few days before Christmas 2008 when his life was tragically taken by the actions of an inebriated, unlicensed, unregistered driver.  Ben was 26 years old.

    Eligibility

    To be eligible for the Prize in 2022, students must be enrolled in any degree program in 2022 (undergraduate or postgraduate), offered by the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the time of application and have been a student in UNSW for at least (2 years or 6 terms).

    Selection criteria

    The annual prize is to be awarded on the following basis:

    1. Contribution to the promotion or enhancement of the benefits of computing to society
    2. Demonstrated use of computing to improve health, wellbeing or through the development or use of medical devices. (This might be through coursework, project work, internships, or volunteering activities)  
    3. Contribution to the wider computer science and engineering community through activities which enhance the student experience (e.g. volunteering in student societies, serving as a student representative, creation of new activities for others e.g. mentoring programs, leading hackathons, workshop development, networking events, skills development events etc.) 
    4. Meritorious academic performance in their studies to date, including outstanding performance in the field of computing and/or biomedical engineering.

    Application requirements

    Applicants will be expected to submit a one-page document detailing how they meet the selection criteria and to demonstrate high levels of excellence in most, if not all of the criteria. 

    The selection panel reserves the right not to award this prize in a given year. Applicants may be interviewed as part of this awards process and their application may be provided to the external award sponsors as part of the evaluation process. 

    Application closing date

    Applications will close at 5pm at the end of flexibility week (typically week 6 of Term 1) in each year.

    Nominations should address the selection criteria, and must be sent to cse.sm@unsw.edu.au.

    Prize $1,000

  • The Anita Borg Award recognises students who’ve made a significant contribution to the benefits of computing for women. If you have an excellent academic record and have completed two years of full-time study with us, you may be eligible for this prestigious award.  

    History of the award  

    Dr Anita Borg co-founded the Anitab.org (formerly, The Institute for Women and Technology) in 1997 with the vision to change the world for women and technology. The Institute aims to connect, inspire and guide women to develop to their highest potential in technical fields.  

    In 1999, Anita Borg visited UNSW and conducted a workshop in science and technology for primary school girls. It was the first workshop of its kind for this audience.  

    In recognition of her significant contribution to women in computing and to UNSW, Gernot Heiser and Trudy Weibel established the Anita Borg Award.    

    Prize details 

    Nomination: If you’re a Computer Science and Engineering student, you can be nominated by a peer, staff member, or you can opt to self-nominate.  

    Deadline: November 2021 

    Prize amount: $2000 

    Eligibility 

    To be eligible for the award, you must: 

    • be a local or international student studying an undergraduate or postgraduate program  
    • be enrolled and studying a program offered by the School of Computer Science and Engineering including double degrees 
    • have completed two-years full-time study by the end of the year before the closing date. 

    Selection criteria & how to apply 

    The award will be bestowed on the following basis: 

    1. The recipient has contributed to the promotion/enhancement of the benefits of computing to society. This includes encouraging or facilitating the participation of women in computing.
    2. Meritorious academic performance, including outstanding performance in the field of computing. 

    If you’d like to apply, simply submit a one-page document with:  

    • a description of how you meet the selection criteria above, paying particular attention to criteria 1 
    • your student number 
    • full name.  

    Once you have completed your application, email Shayne Harries

    Previous Anita Borg Award winners

    Prize Year Name
    2004 Manceilla, Blanca
    2005 Falamaki, Sara
    2006
    Lo, Kitty Ka-Yi

     

    2009

    Teh, Belinda Zhiling
    2010 Holman, Abigail

     

    2014

    Bennett, Andrew Jay
    2015 Ung, Vanessa Amy

     

    2016

    Lyons, Anna Mary
    2017 Beder, Hannah Emily

     

    2018

    Ovens, Dannielle Jaime
    2019 Liu, Hung-Yi
    2020 Younes, Gabrielle Martha
    2021 De Bellis, Giuliana