GCU undergraduate scoops Student of the Year title

Final-year Glasgow Caledonian optometry undergraduate Ambreen Saira Hussain has been named the winner of this year’s CooperVision National Student Summit.

Ms Hassain won the title of Student of the Year for her project on contact lens material on in vitro wettability in adverse environmental conditions, which was supervised by Dr Louise Madden. She receives a free place at the 2017 BCLA Clinical Conference and Exhibition and will also represent the UK in CooperVision’s European FORCE event, which is hosted in Budapest next year.

CooperVision hosts the summit annually, inviting students from UK universities that offer optometry as a degree to complete a summer research project about contact lenses. A shortlisted candidate from each university then presents their project findings to a judging panel of lecturers and academics at CooperVision’s Hamble-based offices.

This year, students from seven universities presented their projects, which all explored contact lenses and the anterior eye. The projects were judged on originality, usefulness and potential application, while the students were also assessed on their presentation skills and knowledge.

Reflecting on this year’s summit, professional services consultant at CooperVision, Shail Patel, commented: “The CooperVision Student of the Year project been running for six years and, once again, we have been extremely impressed by the participating students’ dedication to their research and professional delivery of their presentations. As a company we are committed to helping develop the future of the industry and look forward to nurturing more young talent in the years to come.”