BrainAcademy - it’s about careers in IT

BrainAcademy, launched by the Computer Science Department at Queen Mary College, part of the University of London, is an on-line talent search aimed at finding the UK’s brightest and best computer programmers.

Omarketing’s role was two fold: to find sponsors to support the competition and to provide prizes and to promote the competition within the computing and career/educational press.

When the BrainAcademy talent hunt was first launched in 2003 it went for a suitably impressive prize, the winner would have their tuition fees paid, and a grant for the duration of their study. But perhaps just as important, the competition sponsors Microsoft added fast track status for the winner for Microsoft summer job placements and the company’s graduate recruitment scheme. In effect, the winner would be able to ‘win’ a career with Microsoft.

The competition received wide spread recognition and even the cabinet minister for IT, Stephen Timms commended the project. Naturally, the word spread through the Internet where the competition was reported worldwide. After the first stage web ‘treasure hunt’ questions which amassed some 80,000 hits in total, and a test of problem solving skills with some tricky mathematics questions, one hundred and twenty made it into the programming challenge. Only a handful made the grade for the final interview. The first winner was Adam Kramer, from North London who won a bursary valued at almost £15,000. 

“No words of praise are high enough for Omarketing, but if I must professional, effective, friendly and oh so well connected, what more could anyone ask for!”

Dr. Peter McOwan – Reader in Artificial Intelligence,
Queen Mary University of London