Arkwright Scholar Erroll Wood Visits MSRC

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Erroll Wood visited Microsoft Research Cambridge as an Arkwright scholar, and chatted to the Applied Games Group on Monday 11 of February 2008. Before handing in the mike to Erroll, let us link to some of the games he has written:

Now, here's the story of the Arkwright scholarship in Erroll's own words

In my GCSE year I took a paper and an interview for an Arkwright scholarship – a Design & Technology sponsorship scheme aimed to stimulate young people to raise the profile of the Design & Technology subject. Those who are accepted into the scheme are given £500 over 2 years to spend in the academic field and many more opportunities. Their school also receives £500 over two years to buy equipment. A few months after the interview I was pleasantly surprised to find out I’d secured a place with Microsoft Research Cambridge with its MD Andrew Herbert as my sponsor but I was most pleased to be given the chance to spend a few days in MSRC – a valuable experience.

I found the whole branch very impressive and the people working there really seemed to enjoy what they were doing. I was given a tour round plenty of different projects and it was interesting and exciting to get a peek at what might end up in big profile products in the near future. I also got a few days to work with the Computational Biology team helping them finish off a website though I did spend a lot of time just chatting and getting to know the team which was great.

This is a games blog I understand and I guess one of the reasons MSRC chose to sponsor me was my expressed interest in programming and games. As a hobby and to make some pocket money on the side I design and program games in flash to be played through web browsers. I’ve always enjoyed playing games and it’s a real pleasure to be able to make them as well so others can experience what you’ve created for them. It is a time consuming process however and I wish I was able to make more of them more often, but as it is I can only get them out during holidays when I’ve got more free time it seems.

To recap, thanks to all the guys who made my stay at MSRC so enjoyable and I wish everyone all the best!

Erroll

I very much enjoyed talking to Erroll, and got addicted to Turret Defence 2.

Joaquin Quiñonero Candela