The Young Software Engineer of the Year awards are a showcase for the computer science and software engineering talent coming through Scotland’s universities.

Each university can nominate one student who’s work will be judged on criteria which includes innovation, relevance and technical difficulty.

Graeme Smith, a former winner of the competition, now Managing Director of Amazon Development Centre (Scotland) said: “I’ve seen the Young Software Engineer of the Year awards from both sides. The YSE award really helped me get attention from employers in the early stages of my career.

“As an employer, I’m proud to support the awards because it’s important to recognise upcoming talent and it’s been a great way for us to get introductions to these graduates, several of whom we have hired in the past.”

Among the shortlisted projects for 2017 are a smart attendance system using mobile NFC, an app for children with autism, a bus system for high altitude balloon missions, a sensor augmented keyboard a crowd-sourced mapping system for cyclists.

The nominees for this years awards are:

• Duncan Cameron (Heriot Watt) Quicky-Quickcheck for Dafny
• Patrick Jackson (Glasgow Caledonian University) Using Google App engine for delivery of Google Drive data via Java
• Arturas Molcanovas (Robert Gordon University) A modular framework for acquisition/analysis of social media data
• Gala Malbasic (St Andrews University) LeapUp – the new keyboard renaissance
• William Taylor (University of the West of Scotland) – JavaScript runtime for hardware accelerated applications
• Alexander Zarafu (University of Aberdeen) – News Knowledge Explorer
• Amy Parent (University of Abertay) – A modular bus system for high-altitude balloon systems
• Orisa Ngampakdeepanich (University of Edinburgh) – App for children with autism spectrum conditions
• Irina Camilleri (Strathclyde University) – PedalPal enriching cycle maps through crowd-sourced data
• Joe Barrett (Edinburgh Napier University) – Calculation of mountain bike suspension using image analysis
• Christopher Coyle (Stirling University) – Smart attendance system using mobile NFC
• Martin Podlubny (University of Glasgow) – Synchronous mobile messaging

The awards are the climax of the annual ScotSoft, the country’s annual festival of ideas and innovation which showcases Scotland’s digital technology sector.

Polly Purvis, CEO of ScotlandIS, said: “The innovation and ideas that have gone into the shortlisted projects are outstanding and cover a wide range of industries. Each entry has identified an area where improvement could be made and delivered a well-researched and crafted product.

“As digital technology plays an increasing role in our daily lives, it is vital that Scotland equips itself with the skills to lead the way in this sector. It is the knowledge and inventiveness that is demonstrated in projects like this that will ensure we continue to deliver in the years ahead.”

ScotSoft takes place on October 5th at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. In addition to the Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards, the event features a developer’s conference and a leadership forum. The agenda for event and tickets are available from the ScotSoft website.