Celebrating excellence: EECS Student Awards 2026 honour outstanding achievements

As another successful academic year draws to a close, students and staff gathered to recognise individuals whose accomplishments have made a lasting impact on the School and wider community. The awards celebrated excellence across academic achievement, community engagement, resilience, project work and student support, highlighting the diverse ways in which EECS students contribute to the life of the School.

Celebrating our student demonstrators

A highlight of the event was the recognition of our Demonstrators of the Year. These students have played a vital role in supporting teaching across the School, helping peers develop confidence and understanding in laboratories, tutorials and practical sessions.

Congratulations to:

Acil Djehiche, Andres Aharhel Mercado Velazquez, Anish Maharjan, Antonella Maria Cristina Torrisi, Artur Baran, Avni Harshini Pramesh Dhokia, Bleiz MacSen Del Sette, David Legesse Lankamo Barenga, Fadil Omar Elbshari, Fahi Sabab Al, Faizan Aftab, Filip Sroka, Gowhar Farooq, Ilenia Maietta, John William Kerr Lawrence, Marlon Pharrell Chaves Pires, Maximilian Kyriakides, Michail Panagopoulos, Muhammed Billal Hossain, Naphat Jittavisutthikul, Noor Mohamed Fouad Elsayed Fouda, Oliverio Bombicci Pontelli, Poorvi Gaur, Rayyan Parkar, Roman James John Pretty, Saba Ghasemzadehhassankolaei, Sara Cardinale, Seyed Mojtaba Jazayeri, Siddhant Misra, Tahsan Rahman, Vanesa Eliza Chetrusca, Vanessa Luong, Varsha Jaiswal, Vasanth Subramanian, Xiangyan Chen, Yefan Li, Youssef Medhat Youssef Sherif, Zafirah Maryam Bhatti, Zayn Ali Panjwani and Zhang Xian Lin.

Special prizes

A number of students were recognised with named prizes celebrating outstanding achievements across a variety of categories.

Kohei Honda Prize

Named in honour of Professor Kohei Honda, a pioneering computer scientist whose work transformed the field of distributed and concurrent systems, this prize recognises excellence in applying scientific and engineering principles in the broad area of Distributed Systems.

Muhammad received the award for his outstanding final-year project, in which he designed, implemented and thoroughly tested a micropayments protocol on Ethereum. His work demonstrated both strong theoretical foundations and impressive practical implementation skills.

Omar El-Aziz Memorial Award

This award commemorates Omar El-Aziz and recognises students who have shown exceptional resilience and determination while overcoming significant personal challenges during their studies.

Winner: Gabrielius Jakub Lapienis

Gabrielius has shown steadfast determination throughout his academic journey despite facing significant personal challenges, including caring for his younger sibling. This recognition celebrates not only his academic progress but also his remarkable resilience, strength of character and commitment to achieving his goals in the face of adversity.

Peter McOwan Prize

Named in memory of Professor Peter McOwan, whose work and leadership inspired generations of students, this prize honours students who have made significant contributions to the social good and wider community through volunteering, mentoring, outreach and other impactful activities.

Winner: Ilenia Maietta

Ilenia has made an outstanding contribution to the EECS community through her role as Student Organiser for the Peer Assisted Study Support (PASS) scheme. Through her initiative, enthusiasm and enterprising approach, she has significantly increased student engagement and helped foster a supportive learning environment that has positively impacted first-year student outcomes.

Alongside her work with PASS, Ilenia also volunteered at the IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference hosted at Queen Mary in 2025, demonstrating her commitment to the wider academic and engineering education community.

A fantastic role model for fellow students, Ilenia has consistently demonstrated leadership, dedication and generosity in supporting others.

Laurie Cuthbert Prize

This prize recognises students from the Electronic Engineering programme who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement and excellence in project work.

Winner: Fadil Omar Elbshari

Fadil has demonstrated excellence through an outstanding development project that showcased a broad range of engineering skills. His approach combined academic rigour with technical excellence, reflecting a high level of competence, creativity and professionalism.

The project culminated in a fully functional and well-presented final product, providing a clear testament to his dedication, ability and future potential as an engineer.

Project Showcase Winners

The annual project showcase celebrates students' ability not only to deliver excellent technical work but also to communicate their ideas effectively.

Congratulations to:

• Gabriel Ireri Kanjama – An AI System for Music Audio Analysis and Insight
• Stanislaw Marc – Agentic Chatbot for Queen Mary Support
• Zorka Bozilovic – Linear Encoding and Decoding of Brain Activity in Response to Music

Congratulations to all our winners

The EECS Student Awards continue to highlight the extraordinary talent, commitment and diversity of achievement across our student community. From academic excellence and innovative projects to resilience, leadership and service to others, this year's recipients exemplify the values that make EECS such a vibrant and inspiring place to study.

Congratulations to all of our award winners and nominees, and thank you to the staff and students whose efforts contributed to another memorable celebration of student success.