Faculty of Medicine Dean's Prize winners

The Faculty of Medicine Dean's Prizes are awarded every year to the students who achieve the highest overall distinction grade on their Master's course. Meet a selection of those students.

Medical Robotics and Image-Guided Intervention - Lingyu Lyu

Country of origin
China

What did you most enjoy about your course?
This course is a multidisciplinary topic where students are offered with great opportunity to tackle medical robotics relevant challenges. The taught modules are composed of several advanced topics, such as Imaging guided intervention in surgery and Medical Imaging processing. We were working closely with course mates from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds. The group project in the first semester has brought up with many amazing teamwork among mechanical engineers, electrical engineers and clinical specialists. I personally really enjoy this learning and working atmosphere.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?
Our lecturers have made great efforts in organizing every single class during the lock-down. Here I want to express our great gratitude to our course lead, Prof Daniel Elson, who has made tremendous efforts operating all kinds of events and activities within our faculty. Due to COVID-19, the classes and assessments were running online. Our faculty did really great job in ensuring students' access to all the academic resources.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?
I really appreciated for being awarded this prize. Lots of thanks to my project supervisors, who offered me with great supports and guidance throughout the project. Working in Paterson lab is such a good experience where you can explore and enjoy the pure passion for problem-solving and focusing study. The Dean's Prize is a true honer for my work over the last 12 month but it's also a motivation for me and everyone who has passion in their work.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?
I am doing an one-year internship at a surgical robotics company. Spending some time in industry is part of my plan to have better understanding of medical robotics development. In the future, I am planning to stay in this field either as R&D engineers or researchers (pursuing relevant PhD).

Medical Robotics and Image-Guided Intervention - Mehmet Hazirci

Country of origin
England

What did you most enjoy about your course?
Being able to do independent research, while also being appropriate supervised. The research projects are the highlight of the course and really allow for development of lab skills, both technical and professional. Also, the fellow students on the course greatly enriched the experience and made this intensive degree more than just an academic endeavour.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?
Easily the staff. In particular, the course organisers. They went out of their way to ensure that everything was as it should be. And if they weren't, they worked tirelessly to fix them. Also, the commitment that supervisors show to their students is outstanding.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?
I was so surprised that I screamed. I did not expect to receive this award, especially knowing that I was part of a very able cohort. The Prize is a great confidence booster.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?
At the moment I am taking a break from science, and planning to travel to a few different places this year. I hope to be able to start a PhD next year.

Digital Health Leadership - Daniel Woolf

Country of origin
United Kingdom

What did you most enjoy about your course?
The MSc Digital Health Leadership content was comprehensive and thoroughly engaging. I constantly felt challenged yet supported to stretch myself across each course module and was free to approach the diverse assessment methods so that they remained highly relevant to me and my workplace. Hearing from a wide range of lecturers with enormous expertise whilst collaborating with a peer group of varied disciplines meant every interaction presented new and unique learning opportunities. Overall, I found the course extremely enjoyable and wholeheartedly recommend it to all leaders across digital health!

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?
The faculty staff were friendly, knowledgeable, and hugely supportive. Although they delivered a well-structured course, they also made enormous efforts to listen to students and to use that feedback to shape future modules. Help was offered to those experiencing challenges meeting deadlines, and staff were sympathetic to work pressures outside of study, some of which were particularly challenging during the pandemic.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?
I was over the moon! I am hugely honoured to have received the Dean's prize and thankful for all the help and support from Imperial staff, my MSc peer group, and colleagues who have made it possible. The award has also given me greater confidence in my own abilities and inspired me to continue my pursuit of using data and AI to improve the health of our population.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?
I plan to continue developing as a digital leader by using the work of my dissertation as a springboard for further innovative use of data and digital technologies. There remains enormous potential for positive change across digital health and care, and my hope is to be at the leading edge. But first, it's time to celebrate at the graduation ceremony with my friends and coursemates!

Surgical Innovation - Rav Jayasuriya

Country of origin
United Kingdom

What did you most enjoy about your course?
Taught component of the course provided an incredibly valuable foundation of principles of innovation for surgical education, quality improvement, safety, interventional technology and imaging.

What did you most appreciate about the Faculty/College?
Some very inspiring individuals with excellent expertise in their specific fields, who could provide advice on how to approach problems in our own fields.

How did it feel to receive the Dean's Prize?
Incredibly honoured to be recognised for my work during the course.

What are you doing now/What do you plan on doing after graduation?
I am now undertaking a PhD, and supervising BMedSci students, but will shortly returning to training to complete my higher surgical training.