TOP PRIZE: Lance Wilson, Sam Forson and Adam Williamson
Four University of Ulster students are celebrating this week after receiving awards for their projects carried out with Ulster’s Science Shop.
Each student worked on a community-based project as part of their undergraduate degree.
Sharing first prize at this year's Science Shop Awards event – held this year in the Academy restaurant at the University of Ulster's Belfast campus – were three Interactive Media Arts students –Lance Wilson, Sam Forson and Adam Williamson.
The three pals – all students at the University's Coleraine campus –undertook a project with Pavestone, a vocational and leisure rehabilitation centre in Coleraine.
Pavestone has been running a successful social enterprise, FP. McCool & Co, producing bespoke crafts reflecting the beautiful scenery of the North Antrim coast.
The students developed an online web resource, including an online portfolio of contemporary images of the crafts, allowing Pavestone to tap into new web-based customers through e-commerce technology.
Rhoda Baxter, Director of Pavestone said:
"The Science Shop has enabled our social enterprise to have an asset which we would not have been able to develop ourselves. This is an excellent way for the University to liaise with the community sector providing access to keen, knowledgeable and skilled students. I am delighted with the result, and I hope the students benefited from the experience as much as we did."
The fourth student – Rozeanne McCabe, from Derrylin in Co Fermanagh, who is reading for a degree in Social Policy – won an award for a project with Fermanagh Women’s Aid to explore the barriers faced by women in rural and semi- rural areas when seeking help for domestic violence.
This project provided the evidence which the group needed to demonstrate the challenges they face in providing support in a rural setting.
"I found that factors such as isolation, lack of transport, lack of information were all major barriers to women in Fermanagh seeking support on domestic violence issues.
"I hope my work will be of value to Fermanagh Women's Aid in helping them get additional resources to do their valuable work," said Rozeanne.
Kerry Flood, Strategic Development Worker for Fermanagh Women’s Aid, said Rozeanne's work had already made a big difference: "Through Rozeanne's work we have already been able to secure €56,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin – the first time we've ever been funded by a southern body.
"The money will be used for a cross-border project exploring domestic violence and its links with sectarianism, xenophobia and homophobia in the context of rural isolation."
And Rozeanne's project could yet unlock more funding for the charity: her work underpins an application for £120,000 from the UK's Comic Relief to help the charity's childcare team, and was part of an application for £500,000 to the Big Lottery Fund, for an initiative focused on the needs of older people in relation to domestic violence.
They hope to hear the result of their application in the New Year.
Claire Mulrone, Manager of the Science Shop at Ulster, said: "These students have been recognised for their valuable and creative contribution to their respective community partners.
"This is an endorsement of the value of Science Shop community engaged research activities at the University of Ulster to the voluntary and community sector right across Northern Ireland.”
ENDS
For further information on the Science Shop at the University of Ulster contact Claire Mulrone at: c.mulrone@ulster.ac.uk or visit: www.scienceshop.org/