Computing Success

The Balwearie Computing Science team beat 14 others from across Scotland to win this year’s Strathmore Trophy.

Creating a graphic means of fighting phone thieves allowed tech savvy school pupils to claim a top University of Dundee prize on 18 June 2018.

The ingenious system utilises pictures to log on to a device, requiring anybody attempting to access the system to pinpoint information within the images that would only be known to its owner.

The Strathmore Trophy was donated by Mary, Dowager Countess of Strathmore, in 1996 as part of a drive to encourage young people to develop computer technology for the benefit of others.

Having been given no information relating to their task prior to arriving at the campus’ Queen Mother Building on Monday morning, Dr Iain Murray, of the University’s Computing department, said, “Once again the whole judging panel has been hugely impressed by the ingenuity of Scotland’s school pupils.

“This year’s task was particularly challenging and the variety of solutions that were proposed by our competing schools demonstrated great creativity.

“However, the team from Balwearie High School developed an idea that significantly bolstered the security of a device while also being simple to understand, and that is the sort of thinking that top technology firms really admire.”

Shown in the photo (L to R) are Daniel Carr, Owen Plimer, Rebecca Thomson and Alma Reid accompanied on the day by Computing teacher Mr Shearer.