Taking place at our headquarters in Hampshire from 14-16th September, the National Student Summit featured presentations from the top students at Anglia Ruskin, Aston, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester universities, on the contact lens topic of their choice. The presentations were judged by a panel of academics, including the students’ project supervisors, and were marked on content, creativity and delivery style.
We were delighted to award the title of Student of the Year 2015 to Romana Khaliq, a final-year optometry student at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in Scotland, who presented on the effects of two contact lens materials (hydrogel and silicone hydrogel, single use lenses) on tear evaporation rate under different environmental conditions.
Romana receives a full delegate package to attend the 2017 BCLA Clinical Conference & Exhibition and will go on to represent the UK at CooperVision’s European FORCE – Future Ocular Research Creativity Event – to be held at its Centre of Innovation in Budapest, Hungary in spring 2016. FORCE brings together students from across Europe to compete for the title CooperVision FORCE Student of the Year. The prize for the overall FORCE winner is a full delegate package, including travel and accommodation, to attend a major international contact lens meeting.
Commenting on the calibre of this year’s entries, Karl Aberdeen, CooperVision’s Professional Development Manager for the ACE region, said: “Each year the students raise the bar on the standard of research and presentation. All this year’s finalists show great promise. It’s wonderful to see this young talent and for CooperVision to play a part in nurturing that talent.”
