Double award success for new MSc graduate

A new graduate from the School of Mathematics has received an award for the best industry-based student project in her field in the UK.

Sara Heledd Thomas, who last week graduated from MSc Operational Research, Applied Statistics and Financial Risk, has every reason to celebrate as she has been awarded two prizes recently.

The Operational Research (OR) Society awarded her the 2017 May Hicks Prize of £1,000 for the best industry-based student project in OR in the UK. Projects entered are OR projects carried out for a client organisation rather than within a university.

Of Sara's award, the OR society said: “The project undertaken by Sara Heledd Thomas was for the Hywel Dda University Health Board as part of her MSc in Operational Research, Applied Statistics and Financial Risk course at Cardiff University.

“The project was analysing some of the challenges associated with the interactions between the health and social care systems; an increasingly challenging problem in this current age. The development of a detailed simulation model backed up by statistical analysis and data mining techniques has provided the client with significant new insights into the scenario. The high profile nature of this project has resulted in OR methods being recognised as a key tool in working in multi-disciplinary teams."

Following on from this success, Sara was also awarded the Admiral Prize for best performance on her course at the School of Mathematics recent graduation ceremony.

Sara’s thesis is entitled Redesigning ‘step up’ and hospital ‘front door’ services to meet the needs of older patients.