The awards were created to recognise outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate IT students within the UK.

Following the success of the inaugural awards in 2015, The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Charity was very pleased to support the scheme for its sixth year in 2020. In doing so, the WCIT Charity hopes to encourage students to pursue careers in IT, to encourage an entrepreneurial and charitable ethos among those students, and, more pragmatically, to give financial help to students on IT courses.

Criteria for the award included academic excellence, overcoming adversity, entrepreneurial skills, and contribution to charity or community. This year’s judging panel consisted of:

• The Master Information Technologist (Mr Ray Long CB)
• Alderman and Sheriff of the City of London (Professor Michael Mainelli)
• The Master Educator (Mrs Pamela Taylor)
• WCIT Charity Chairman & Past Master (Dr Stefan Fafinski)
• Chairman of WCIT Charitable Grant-Making (Mr Gary Moore)
• The WCIT Clerk (Mrs Susan Hoefling)

This year, there were five universities making the shortlist for the final and they were:

• King’s College London
• University of Hertfordshire
• Lancaster University
• Cambridge University
• Imperial College London

This year’s Silver winner is undergraduate student Halite Abudureyimu from Imperial College London's Department of Computing.