Awards for Undergraduates

Two sets of awards are available for undergraduate students.  The Elsie Cropper Grants are for OR sandwich students to purchase books.  The May Hicks Award gives cash prizes to the best undergraduate student projects carried out for external organisations.

Elsie Cropper Grants (Books for Sandwich Students)

These grants were instituted in memory of Elsie May Cropper, a senior member of the Operational Research Executive (ORE) of British Coal, who died in service in 1989, aged 44 years. Elsie had always been a strong supporter of sandwich students who worked for a year in industry as part of their degree courses. 

Eligibility
Students who are studying OR at undergraduate level at a British University and who are engaged upon a 12 month industrial placement in the field of OR in the UK are eligible.

Value
The value of each grant shall be £60.00. The number of grants in any year shall normally be limited to twelve.

Entry
Students eligible for the award and wishing to apply should make a submission, which is to include the name of the university attended, the title of the degree course being undertaken, the OR-related subjects that have been and will be studied, a brief description (maximum 250 words) of the work being undertaken during the industrial placement, and a letter from the employer confirming the applicant's employment status and university. 

Selection
A grant may be made to any applicant who, in the judgement of the Awards Committee, meets the criteria for eligibility. In the event of there being more applications than there are grants available, the committee may select candidates on the basis of the most deserving, first come first served, or such other equitable criteria as it may decide to apply. At its discretion, the Awards Committee may make no offer if it considers that none of the candidates are eligible. 

Independence of committee members
During their term of office, members of the Awards Committee may not make nominations, nor may they provide supporting documentation for nominees.

Condition 
It is a condition of the grant that the money awarded be expended on the purchase of books or other relevant materials such as CD ROMs or software required by the recipient for the final year of their studies.

Application
Entries should be submitted by email unless infeasible. Attachments should take the form of Word (doc) files. Please send entries to [log in to unmask], to arrive no later than 28th May 2004.

May Hicks Award (Cash Prizes for Undergraduate Student Projects)

The OR Society has received a generous bequest from the estate of Mrs May Hicks, wife of Donald Hicks, OBE, a major contributor to operational research and the first treasurer of the OR Society. The money is being used to fund annual awards for undergraduate student projects. For 2004, the prizes for the competition are as follows: 1st prize £500 and two runners up of £150 each. (Note: postgraduate project awards are also available from this fund later in the year.)

The rules for entry are as follows.

1.      Entries are invited from any eligible courses. Undergraduate courses in OR or Management Sciences are automatically eligible. Other courses should, before contemplating entry, seek confirmation of their eligibility from the Society.

2.      Entries should be made by the Course Director or a faculty member acting on his/her behalf (and not by students direct). One entry per 15 students on the course, or part thereof, is allowed.

3.      Projects entered should be OR projects carried out for a client organisation (and not, for example, desk research carried out within the university). Joint projects are allowed.

4.      The initial entry should consist of the following:

(i)     a summary of not more than two pages of the project and its effects;
(ii)    endorsement of the project's effectiveness by the organisation which hosted the project; and
(iii)   an endorsement by an independent academic (e.g. the external examiner) of the project's quality.

    Anonymised (as to the clients) entries will be accepted. In such cases, the endorsement at (ii) should be submitted as a private communication to the chair of the awards committee.

5.      The judging panel will shortlist the entries.  Project reports may be requested for shortlisted entries, so a final decision can be reached on the winners.  The panel may, at their discretion, make site visits or invite students to present their work.

6.      Winners will be encouraged to present their work at an OR Society conference and to publish the work in one of the Society's publications.  The OR Society may also publicise the winning entries through its publications and the website.

7.      Entries for undergraduate projects should be submitted electronically to [log in to unmask] to arrive no later than 2 August 2004.  



Dr Stewart Robinson
Senior Lecturer in Operational Research 
Warwick Business School
Warwick University
Coventry
CV4 7AL
UNITED KINGDOM

Tel: 44-(0)2476-522132
Fax: 44-(0)2476-524539
Email: [log in to unmask]
Home Page: http://www.btinternet.com/~stewart.robinson1/SR.HTM
Simulation Book: http://www.wileyeurope.com/go/robinson