AN AYRSHIRE student has been officially named as the 35th Young Software Engineer of the Year.

The awards champion Scotland’s most innovative and creative computing science projects developed by 2024 graduates.

Ben Macdonald’s winning entry tackles an important real-world problem by aiming to strengthen internet users’ data privacy and more closely control how companies use peoples’ data.

Now at Strathclyde University, Ben’s journey into computing science began at Ayrshire College, where he completed an HNC in computer games development, followed by an HND.

The 35th annual Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards took place at a ceremony in Edinburgh at ScotlandIS’ ScotSoft conference.

All four of the winners receive a trophy along with a cash prize in recognition of their achievements.

Judging for the prize is conducted by a panel of industry experts and is chaired by Sean Gordon, a long-standing member of the panel. The criteria used includes level of innovation, technical difficulty, level of knowledge, previous research, commercial or social relevance, quality of engineering, planning and organisation and quality of presentation.

Ben’s project explored an alternative approach of developing private and personal data hubs managed by individual users with his work being published in the 2024 Solid Symposium.

Speaking shortly after receiving his award, Ben explained why he had pursued his particular research area.

He said: “Data privacy is going to be one of the biggest challenges we’ll face in the next few years, so it’s vital we get it right.

"That’s easier said than done though. It’s an issue with many moving parts and many large businesses have a clear vested interest in securing long term access to the data we all make available when using the internet.

“It’s a real honour to receive this award and I just hope that my research can help contribute to a practical and effective solution to some of these emerging issues.”