Meet our April Wonders and Wows winners

We're delighted to announce the latest staff winners of our Warwick Wonders and Wows awards. Nominated by you, these awards celebrate our outstanding people and the work we do together. 

Stuart Croft, Vice-Chancellor, was out on campus to surprise colleagues again, and the Internal Comms team was on hand to capture these special moments.

After presenting the awards, Stuart said:  

“I'm delighted to be out and about on campus to present these awards to our worthy winners - we can all be very proud of the way they've gone above and beyond in their roles.

One colleague we’re celebrating this month designed a Warwick voucher scheme that’s quicker to process, more usable and more effective. Others have delivered the first-ever joint World Congress on Undergraduate Research and the British Conference of Undergraduate Research – a huge organisational challenge.

To all winners this month – thank you so much, and well done.”

Transcript

Wonder:

Stuart: Well, I'm delighted to say it's time for more Wows and Wonders, and I'm about to go across to University House to the Finance team and Alex Jackson, to give her an award for the fantastic work that she's done on the voucher scheme: making sure that the voucher scheme is quicker to process, more usable and more effective. Alex has just been so focused and determined to see that project through. So let's go and see Alex.

We have, Alex, this thing - you know, Wows and Wonders. People are nominated for having done wonderful things, and you have been nominated for doing a wonderful thing in all that work you've done on the voucher scheme and you've won! You've won! That's why we're here today. So what I'd love to do, if you'd let me do so, is just present you with a certificate and a thing, there's a thing as well - there it is, a star for a star! Brilliant, well done you!

Alex's manager: She's very thorough, to understand why we're doing it: like, is that the best way to do it? Is that the most efficient way to get to the end result?

Wow:

Stuart: So, Wows and Wonders round two. Having just said to Alex, 'fantastic work, thank you so much for everything you've done over in Finance', we're here at Senate house to meet the team that work in, through and out of IATL, who have done such amazing work with two fantastic conferences. The British Conference of Undergraduate Research which came to Warwick for the second time (no university's had it twice before), and the World Conference of Undergraduate Research: hundreds of students from around the UK and around the world coming, presenting their work, discussing and meeting. An enormous organisational challenge but fantastic work. The team have been nominated and we're going to go and say to them, 'thank you so much and well done'.

I've come to say hi - well, I've come to say several things actually. First of all fantastic, well done, what amazing thing you guys pulled off. What an amazing couple of things you pulled off! Secondly actually what a brilliant performance at Senate as well - it's a tough gig, so that was an amazing performance. So brilliant.

But most importantly, we have this thing called the Warwick Wows and Wonders, where people nominate activities and people who've done just amazing things - and it's entirely right and appropriate that you guys win one of these awards for your exceptionally brilliant performance. What we've got is a certificate for you to put up, [joking] we've got two pounds fifty for you to share between yourselves, but most importantly we have the thing, the thing that signifies the trial - the stars, your stars!

Well done absolutely everyone - brilliant, brilliant!

You can congratulate the winning colleagues in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Warwick Wonders

The Warwick Wonders Award celebrates the people we are proud to work with at our University. It recognises colleagues who have gone above and beyond to make a positive difference and enrich our community.   

Alex Jackson

Finance

Alex – who’s an Accounts Clerk in the Finance team – came up with an in-depth proposal for the new Warwick voucher system, which is now in use. Working in Finance gave her a unique perspective to see where significant improvements could be made to save time and money across the whole process.

Alex’s proposal:

allowed departments to manage their own voucher schemes;
eliminated lengthy processing of the vouchers within the outlets;
allowed for verification and recording of each voucher to eliminate fraud;
provided Finance with all the information needed to generate a report.

Alex worked hard to get the proposal approved and continued to work closely with colleagues in IDG to develop the system. She was then involved in the roll-out of the system, wrote the user guides, and trained many of the departments in using the system.

Estimates show that the new voucher system has already saved at least five hours of work a week across all departments.

After receiving the award, Alex said:

"It was a real honour to receive the award and I am very thankful for the recognition. As someone who is a late diagnosed Autistic, I have been discovering how my brain works differently to others, and to therefore have recognition for my ideas and how I work makes me feel validated, seen and accepted.

The voucher project could not have become the success it is without the hard work of the Software Engineering team, who are a delight to work with. I think this project is a true testament to what can be achieved when departments collaborate together, and I am looking forward to working with the Software Engineering team in the future to extend and improve the voucher system even further."

Image of Stuart presenting Alex with her award

Warwick Wows

The Warwick Wows celebrate amazing work, projects, and achievements at the University.

WorldCUR-BCUR

Caroline Gibson, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning

Emma Barker, Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning

Dr Jane Bryan, School of Law

And the wider WorldCUR-BCUR team, including the Student Directors.

Our Wows this month are helping to make Warwick a sector-leading centre of excellence for student research. They’re bringing the opportunity to experience the thrill of academic discovery to undergraduates, enhancing transferable and academic skills and helping students build an impressive profile to support their aspirations following graduation.

Even more excitingly, they delivered the first-ever joint World Congress on Undergraduate Research (WorldCUR) and the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR) in April, bringing around 700 undergraduates from across the world to Warwick to present their research.

After winning the award, Caroline Gibson said:

"Hosting WorldCUR and BCUR was the culmination of many years of work and preparation. It was amazing to see so many students, from all around the world, visiting Warwick and sharing their research. The buzz at the events was wonderful and we've had such great feedback from attendees. For the team to receive the Warwick Wow award was brilliant, recognising the huge amount of thought, work and passion everyone put into the event."

Emma Barker added:

"Winning the Wonders and Wows award means a lot to the whole team behind WorldCUR-BCUR, who have all worked so hard to make the events such a success. Having this recognition from Warwick has continued this high for the team and spurred us on for evaluation and consolidation work over the coming months."

Jane Bryan said:

"The whole staff/student team worked so hard to ensure the conference delivered a fantastic experience for delegates from across the world and showed off our beautiful campus and amazing community, as well as Warwick's long-standing commitment to promoting student research - it is fantastic to have that recognised by a Wonders and Wows award."

Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. We received so many high-quality nominations - so keep an eye out for more Wonders and Wows winners in the coming weeks!

To leave a comment for your fellow colleagues, please sign in.

2 page comments