Students in the News

Biology Olympiad Five students from the College were selected to take part in the annual national Biology Olympiad, and of these three gained silver awards, placing them in the top 100 of all students, nationally that entered, and a fourth student gained a bronze award. The three students gaining silver awards were John Sharp, David Stoeter and Ishwar Sunsoay. The bronze award went to David Miodrag	Physics Olympiad Thomas Reville and Daniel Stachow were selected to take part in the annual Physics Olympiad. Thomas was awarded a commendation, and Daniel achieved a silver medal, placing him in the top 100 of the 1000 physics students taking part in the competition
Investment Masters In the last issue of College News we reported that the investment masters team, comprising Talvinder Kandola, Amit Mistry and Shane Thakrar, had got through to the regional semi-final of the Proshare National Investment Programme, after starting as one of 2500 teams. Following this they won a place in the national final, and after a closely-fought and challenging contest, were placed second. This is the first time that the College had gained a place in the final, which took place at the London Stock Exchange	Leaders of Tomorrow Abdul-Rahim Sattar was awarded second place in the Community category of the prestigious national Leaders of Tomorrow awards. Through his involvement with the Leicester Young People’s Council Abdul was also selected to be one of the joint editors of ‘React’, a national magazine produced by Save the Children, as reported in the last issue of College News
We were also pleased to hear of the successes of these former students:
A design for combined luggage trolley and seat that he developed while studying Design A-level at the College has won Rakshit Gohel, who left the College in 2000, not only first prize in the district final of the Rotary Design Awards 2000 but also second prize in the East Midlands regional heat of the Young Engineers for Britain competition
David Roe, a former student of Wyggeston Boys’ School, was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List. David read English at Cambridge University before joining the Civil Service in 1983. Most recently, he was head of the Treasury team responsible for the complex piece of legislation that is the Financial Service and Markets Bill.
A Leicester-based software company "ThinkingApp.com" that has three former students amongst its small staff has won Microsoft's '2001 Digital Britain' award. The award for 'Best E-solution' was won by Thinking Applications Ltd, for a system it designed for a dot com e-retailer. It has also developed a unique software platform that is used by clients ranging from India's ICICI bank to global on-line recruitment companies. ThinkingApplications was set up in London by Suresh Patel, who was a student here from 1989-91, and Ketan Pandya. Suresh studied Computer Science at Manchester, and gained valuable experience with American investment banks in London before deciding to start his own company. Now operating from an office in New Walk, the company also employs Sarah Whitmore and Mital Ladwa. Both were students here from 1993-95, and both joined ThinkingApplications as graduates - Sarah has a degree in Geography and Sport Science and a master's degree in IT, and Mital has a degree in Computer Science. At a time when confidence in the technology market is low it is encouraging to find a local company that is bucking the trend and creating high-tech opportunities for graduates.
Samantha Elliott, who left the College in 1998, has just graduated from the University of Leicester with a first-class degree in Economic and Social History. As well as the distinction of achieving the only first-class degree in the faculty, Samantha was awarded the Ralph Davies Prize for being its best undergraduate performer. She has now returned to the University to study for a master's degree in Urban History.