Triple success for Abertay at TIGA UK Games Education Awards

Abertay University enjoyed staff, student and research successes at the TIGA UK Games Education Awards.

The event from the UK videogames industry body saw three awards go to the University and three Abertay students recognised for their work, across a broad cross-section of areas related to the games sector.

Professor Ruth Falconer, Head of Division for Games Technology and Mathematics was awarded the TIGA Diversity Award 2021 for her work in promoting diversity in the gaming sector.

At the awards, TIGA highlighted the work Ruth does in her role as Women in Games Education Director.

The Abertay-led InGAME centre was recognised for its work in research and development with the Excellence in Games Research 2021 award.

InGAME works to increase the scale and the value of the Dundee video games cluster through product, service and experience innovation.

The partnership recently launched a £50,000 prize for game designers who can successfully design a virtual environment that tests new approaches for increasing access to healthy food.

Abertay University’s Dare Academy was recognised with the TIGA Best Talent Initiative Award 2021.

Dare Academy is Abertay’s annual in-house game design competition where students come together to form their own games studios to create a game over the summer months. Each group is given mentoring support from industry professionals throughout the project before showcasing their final games to judges.

The winning studio is granted a prize worth £20,000 including cash, business support and access to hardware and systems to develop their idea further.

In addition to the prizes above, three of our students were recognised by TIGA as “graduates of the year”.

Sonia Yaroz was recognised as TIGA’s Artist Graduate of the year.

Sam Gallacher was recognised as TIGA’s Computer Games Technology Graduate of the Year.

Lewis Pike was awarded TIGA’s Programmer Graduate of the Year award.

Dean of School of Design and Informatics Gregor White said: “We’re thrilled that the hard work of our students and staff has been recognised by TIGA in their 2021 awards.

“It’s always pleasing when the dedication and drive of the School is recognised externally, but for such important projects to receive national accolades is real testament to the ability and dedication that’s been put in across the board.”

More information on the TIGA UK Games Education Awards can be found here.