Theo Damoulas and co-authors have been announced as the recipients of the 2024 Wilkes AwardLink opens in a new window.
The Wilkes Award is presented once a year to the authors of the best paper published in the volume of The Computer Journal from the previous year, based on originality and quality of theme and treatment. The prize is named after Sir Maurice Wilkes, who was Director of the Cambridge Computer Laboratory throughout the whole development of stored program computers starting with EDSAC; inventor of labels, macros and microprogramming; with David Wheeler and Stanley Gill, the inventor of a programming system based on subroutines.

The award-winning paper describes the development of methodology to process over 900 camera feeds in near real-time to generate new estimates of social distancing adherence, group detection and camera stability. This work was essential to informing policy interventions by the Greater London Authority during the COVID-19 pandemic.