TCL Scholarship Students 2009

Over the last few years we have evolved a scholarship programme, which now has take up at three different universities.  This year I am very pleased to see that we have three scholars at each of the universities, in addition to our involvement with the sports scholarship programme at Exeter.  This makes a total of ten students at the Universities of Exeter (UK), Bristol (UK) and Boston (USA) who are benefiting from the programme this year.

From the University of Bristol TCL have awarded scholarships to three Computer Science students, they are:

· Aleksej Stolicyn (1st year)

· Bridget McErlean (2nd year)

· Adam James Marable (3rd year).

At Boston University TCL have selected three scholars majoring in Computer Science:

· Shailendra Khemka (freshman)

· Yasmin Akbari (junior)

· Justin Williamson (senior).

At the University of Exeter TCL have awarded scholarships to four students.  Three of the students are studying Computer Science:

· Ronan Hannigan (1st year)

· Sam East (1st year)

· Mingjie Leong (2nd year).

A fourth scholar from Exeter is Lucy Boulton - who is on the sports scholarship programme.  Lucy is a volleyball star who is aiming to compete for Britain in London 2012.

For TCL the investments we are making into the scholarship programmes are all about the future of our industry.  Rather than be the 'poor cousin' of the IT world, we want Testing to become the choice of great people who bring real value to the industry.  We pick our scholars for their academic excellence and also their ability to contribute to the future.

I really enjoy the programmes, and meeting the people that get involved.  It's particularly cool when they come along to our PEST events and also take part in the internship programmes over the summer.  That is where things really start to get going. 

UK Peer Sharing Events in 2009

As a reader of this blog, you are most likely aware of the peer sharing events that we run at TCL.

You can get a lot of the info you need on these at our linkedin group via www.pest-global.org.

For 2009, we have expanded the number of events that are are running. Here are the dates:

• 12/02/09 Bristol
• 17/03/09 London: beingrun as part ofSIGISTwww.sigist.org.uk
• 30/04/09 Bristol
• 14/05/09 London
• 25/06/09 Leeds
• 16/07/09 Bristol
• 13/08/09 Leeds
• 15/10/09 Bristol
• 12/11/09 Leeds
• 03/12/09 London

If you would like more information about the events TCL are running during 2009 please contact Clare Batten on: +44 (0)845 869 6070

I love Boston

I really like Boston.  I can't quite work out what it is, but it ha

s some magic to it, and the more I get to know the place the more I like it.

Our trip this time had many special elements.  The snow being one of them!!  My My is it cold in Boston in January??!!@!

A second element that made the trip special this time was running a PEST event at BU.  This

 was not our first PEST USA, but it was the first for a while and it was the first in conjunction with BU themselves.  I hope that we are able to continue their involvement goi

ng forward.

Attending the event were several members of faculty, 

including Prof. Sclaroff who had set up

 the venue for us and got the others along.   Huge thanks to Stan :)  Also there were scholars from the TCL programme of 2008 and 2009.  Great to see these groups interacting and sharing the experiences that they have had.  There were also some people from local companies such a utest.com and Security Innovation.  Overall, an excellent blend.

Our event was hosted at the BU Bar, the official bar of the Boston University.  Great little place, ticked away from the main street, in the castle building.  Well worth a visit if you can get someone from BU to let you frequent the place.  Check out http://www.bu.edu

if you want to know more about BU.

What I was stunned about, really pleased and amazed about, was the way the faculty speak with, interact with and generally work with the students.  It is so very cool.  They nurture the learning experience.  They treat the students as equals and with respect.  They ask them questions and they listen, really listen to the minds at work.  It's very cool.

I hope that we will get many more chances to go to Boston, to work with BU and our scholars and to build the business of TCL USA with its home and heart in MA.  I want to do this for many reasons, and at least one of them is because I love the place :)