Pop superstar Kylie Minogue has awarded £16k to help four student members of studyvox.co.uk to pay for their University education at an exclusive awards ceremony this week.

 

Pictured above: Hayley Roberts, winning £2,000. Image thanks to Metro

Kylie is the patron of the StudyVox Foundation, the new charity created by us, the UK student social networking site, StudyVox (www.studyvox.co.uk). The StudyVox Foundation has been formed to provide bursary support to UK undergraduates seeking help with tuition fees.

 

The event attracted the worlds press and within hours had photos and articles circulating national news papers including the Telegraph as well as BBC Online and Metro Showbiz. Regional BBC news also ran the story, featuring Kylie awarding the bursaries.

 Jessie Gurr, from London Metropolitan University won the award of £10,000 and three other awards of £2,000 each went to randomly selected members of the website. Jessie Said: “This money has changed my life, this is the biggest thank you I have ever said, I am so grateful.

Kevin Martin, Joint CEO of StudyVox, added: “Today highlights our complete commitment to the student population. We are very proud to have awarded this money to our student members, and can’t wait for the journey ahead.”

Emma McGann, a musician from Coventry University was presented with the StudyVox FM Student Musician of the Year award by Kylie – and played a special gig for the audience to mark the occasion.

The awards were hosted by Ian Rawlinson (Chairman of the Foundation) and Trustee Jack Lowman (pictured above with Kylie Minogue). The event marks the the start of StudyVox’s activities to support the student Community.

 

Above: All the Winner!

Pop superstar Kylie Minogue is to become patron of the StudyVox Foundation, a new charity being launched today by the upcoming UK student social networking site, StudyVox (www.studyvox.co.uk). The StudyVox Foundation has been formed to provide bursary support to UK undergraduates seeking help with tuition fees.

 Whilst in the UK , Kylie – an icon for so many young people – has been spending time at StudyVox HQ to support the Foundation launch and to meet the student team, as well as recording material for StudyVox FM, the first online radio station in the UK dedicated to student music and other content.

 Kylie said: “Studyvox is such a fantastic site for students. It helps them to be connected with one another wherever they may be across the country. I would have loved to have access to this kind of thing when I was studying!”

 StudyVox is supporting the launch of The StudyVox Foundation by pledging an initial £16,000 in bursaries to help with student fees.

 The first award of £10,000 and three other awards of £2,000 each will be presented by Kylie Minogue to UK students members of Studyvox in the spring of 2010.

 Kylie continued: “It will be a great honour to present the first bursaries on behalf of The Studyvox Foundation. Having visited the headquarters, I know it is a very worthwhile and exciting venture.”

 Kevin Martin, Joint CEO of StudyVox, added: “We think it’s very important that StudyVox states its complete commitment to the student population from the very beginning, and creating the Studyvox Foundation is an effective way of doing exactly that.

 “Kylie’s support is a fantastic way of raising the StudyVox Foundation’s profile and getting the word out to students across the UK. Her patronage of The Foundation will add tremendously to its ability to make a difference to the lives of young people.”

 

The Studyvox Echo is now on twitter! Come tweet with us here: http://twitter.com/thestudyvoxecho

StudyVox.co.uk has had a make over, and so has the Echo! More news coming soon on how you can be involved, StudyVox FM and the £10,000 we are giving very very soon!
  Cheers to that! Jack - Editor

 An Australian student has created the first ever iPhone worm - a "rickroller" that puts an image of singer Rick Astley on jailbroken phones

Security company Sophos has warned of the world's first iPhone worm, which has been created by a student in Australia.

The effects of the  student's worm are relatively benign - it changes the handset's wallpaper to an image of 80's UK pop crooner Ricky Astley - but Sophos has warned in a statement that the source code has been published online and could be used to create a more destructive attack.

The virus, known as the ikee worm, is also only able to penetrate so-called "jailbroken" iPhones that have been opened to allow them to be used on any network. So far it has not been seen outside Australia.

"The first indication that anything is wrong with your iPhone is if you see a picture of Rick Astley," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Fortunately the worm doesn't do anything more malicious than that - it doesn't steal information, access your emails or snoop on your calls. But the source code has been made available on the internet - meaning other hackers could create more dangerous versions of the worm."

According to Sophos the author of the worm appears to be a 21 year old student, Ashley Towns, from Wollongong, New South Wales. The company said it had discovered a Twitter page where he admitted writing the worm.

"The worm's author may be unrepentant about what he has done - but it should be remembered that breaking into someone else's iPhone and changing their data is against the law," added Cluley. "This is a wake-up call to iPhone users around the world to take greater care about their security - especially if they jailbreak their phones. Other inquisitive hackers may also be tempted to experiment, and could take the code of ikee and adapt it to have a more sinister payload."

In October, RSA Security chief executive Art Coviello said the emergence of consumer technology in business such as the iPhone combined with a massive increase in web use personally and by companies has created a situation for corporate IT security akin to the myth of the slowly boiling frog. "Not unlike the frog, we have been sitting in the pot while degrees of openess, and information growth have combined with evolving threats to stoke the fires and raise the temperature to uncomfortable levels. So how you feeling now?," he said.

The use of Rick Astley in the ikee worm refers to the harmless Internet meme of "rickrolling" - pointing unsuspecting users to a video of Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up, instead of any other link.

80s singers clearly have an affinity with Internet security though - last month, a security engineer from  Mandy - a cheeky dig at business secretary Lord Peter Mandelson - to show easily Wi-Fi networks could be hijacked for illegal downloading. The stunt was designed to show the flaws in the government's plans to cut-off the internet connection of illegal file-sharers.

Source: eWEEKeurope; 9th November, 2009

A new competition to hunt down tomorrow's creative talent is stirring up studio design

Budge over Simon Cowell, it is Ben de Lisi's moment and instead of budding singers, the talent on trial are aspiring interior designers. Launched this week, the UK's first major talent competition to find the country's next top interior designer has begun. De Lisi, a former mentor on Sky One's Project Catwalk and a celebrity favourite, is leading the panel of judges including Alex Proby, in-house interiors expert at property giant Grosvenor and Kate Kingston, from interior design firm Kingston Shaw.

Search for the perfect furniture with The Independent house and home database, powered by mydeco. 

To prove their design credentials, undergraduates from the world famous KLC School of Interior Design in London and students from John Moore's University in Liverpool (JMU) have been tasked with designing studio apartments in Grosvenor's flagship One Park West. The two winners will get their designs executed in the iconic 17-storey building and each will be invited to partake in an internship at interior design practice Kingston Shaw. Other prizes include a shopping spree in Liverpool One and a "live the city" weekend in One Park West. Commenting on the competition, UK-based De Lisi said, "This is an unrivalled opportunity to design an apartment in a much talked about building designed by Cesar Pelli, the man responsible for the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur."

Instead of belting out tunes on a Saturday night to impress critical judges, the students have been invited to re-design a studio apartment. They will be making moodboards of furniture, sample boards of fabrics, sketches (by hand or computer generated) and a design brief rationale.

"The KLC students are to design a studio for a retired couple who intend to use the space as a second home," Grosvenor's in-house expert Proby, who trained at the Inchbald School of Design, told me earlier this week. "Meanwhile, the students up North at JMU are designing a different studio aimed at an urban professional in his or her late twenties. We've set a budget of £5,000 to supply all furniture and to fit out the studio. It's really tight. On top of that, the students have to choose furniture that is available on a four-week lead-time."

Such financial and time constraints will force students to think creatively.

What are the judges looking for? According to Proby, they are looking for new, exciting design ideas with a commercial awareness. "When judging the entries, we'll be thinking 'does the design maximize potential of space, is it under budget and does the furniture function in its use?' We want to find someone with real 'wow factor' - the design needs to appeal to the target market but be differentiated from the norm."

Soon after the winner is announced in February, the designs will be executed allowing Grosvenor to rent or sell (on long lease) the student-designed apartments. This student competition is another Grosvenor collaboration to raise awareness of its brand and to bring designer properties to all levels of the property market. Earlier this autumn, the property giant collaborated with Ben de Lisi and David Linley who each refurnished a Grosvenor property.

"As an interior designer, you will be faced with many briefs throughout your career from transforming a private jet to refurbishing a multi-million pound restaurant but actually one of the most challenging briefs is to design a studio apartment." Judge Kate Kingston says, "It must have a creative flair, be livable in and yet also make good use of space. This is a true test of talent and ability and we are hoping we might just find a new star among our competitors."

Like X Factor, the interior design talent contest is attracting young hopefuls eager to flaunt their potential, especially relevant in a time when jobs in the Arts are hard to come by.

Source: The Independant; Monday 23rd November, 2009

It was another successful week for the University of Lincoln’s sports teams. The men’s hockey team carried on their impressive early-season form, racking up their third win in a row defeating Northampton 3-0 away from home. The rugby union side defeated the University of Nottingham 4th team by 32 – 17.

The women’s basketball side had first win of the season with a 62-41 point victory as they entertained Northampton. The rowing team came 6th out of 95 at the Norwich Small Boats Head of the River on the weekend. They also came second in a novice 4 race and also second in a mixed double in a race two categories higher than what they usually compete in. The Ultimate Frisbee team performed well as they were in the top 20 in the midlands’ BUCS competition.

The highlight of the week’s sporting action came courtesy of Jamie Powell. The golf team player won the BUCS individual championships in Kent, winning by 3 shots with a 6-under-par 66 against the top 100 golfers.

The full list of res­ults for all University of Lincoln teams for the week ending 06/11/09 :

Badminton

Leicester 1st 0 – 8 Lincoln 1st

Lincoln 2nds 1 – 7 Notts Trent 3rd

Lincoln Women’s1st 6 – 2 Notts Trent 2nd

Basketball

De Montfort 1st V Lincoln Mens (TBC)

Lincoln Women’s 62 – 41 Northampton 1st

Men’s Football

Lincoln 1st 3 – 2 Loughborough 3rd

Lincoln 2nds 2 – 2 Bedfordshire 2nd

Lincoln 4ths 4 – 1 Lincoln3rds

Women’s Football

Wolverhampton 1st 1 – 7 Lincoln 1st

Golf

Central Lancs 1st 2 – 4 Lincoln 1sts

Warwick 1st 5 – 1 Lincoln 2nds

De Montfort 1st 1 – 5 Lincoln 3rds

Hockey

Northampton 0 – 3 Lincoln Mens 1st

Nottingham 4th TBC Lincoln Men’s2nds

Lincoln Men’s 3rds 3 -2 University of Derby (Buxton) 1st

Nottingham Trent 3rds 2 – 0 Lincoln Women’s 2nds

Lincoln Women’s 1st 6 – 0 Leicester 1st

Lincoln Women’s 3rds 0 – 2 Bedfordshire (Bedford) 2nd

Netball

Cambridge 30 – 36 Lincoln 1st

Lincoln 2nds 31 – 38 De Montfort 1st

Rugby League

Coventry 30 – 30 Lincoln Men’s

Rugby Union

Lincoln Mens 1st 32 – 17 Nottingham 4th

Squash

Lincoln Men’s 2nds3 – 2 De Montfort 1st

Tennis

Lincoln Men’s 0 – 10 Nottingham 3rd

Source: The Linc; 6th November, 2009

A university student who provoked national outrage after he was photographed urinating on a wreath of poppies at a war memorial was told yesterday that he may be jailed for his “disgusting and reprehensible” act.

Philip Laing, 19, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, was pictured relieving himself at the memorial after joining 2,000 young students on an organised seven-hour drinking marathon in the centre of Sheffield.

The former independent school pupil appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court wearing a dark suit and tie with a poppy in his lapel to plead guilty to outraging public decency. He was ashamed of his conduct, the court was told, especially as two of his grandparents had fought in the Second World War and he had been on work experience with the Army.

District Judge Anthony Browne told him that all sentencing options for his offence, including a prison term, remained under consideration.

Ian Conway, for the prosecution, said that one Sunday evening last month Laing and a group of friends had drunk a bottle of whisky after rugby practice before joining a drinking event organised by a company called Carnage UK. This was “a bar crawl of numerous licensed premises”.

Laing took part in a number of drinking games, eventually becoming so drunk that he still cannot remember what subsequently happened. At some point he fell asleep on a pavement, awoke and tried to walk, but fell down and banged his head. A photograph was later taken of him urinating on one of the poppy wreaths at the busy city centre war memorial and published in national newspapers.

Arrested and interviewed by police some days later, Laing told officers that he “could not believe what he had done”.

The prosecution accepted, Mr Conway said, that his “disgusting and reprehensible act was not in any way premeditated or politically motivated. Rather, his actions were sadly the result of having consumed large quantities of alcohol.”

Laing, who is studying sports technology at Sheffield Hallam University, is a former pupil of the King’s School, Macclesfield. His father is a computer programmer and his mother an optician. The university will begin its own disciplinary hearings once all criminal proceedings have been completed.

Tim Hughes, in mitigation, said that Laing came from a decent family. “Philip Laing is a young man who was caught up in a culture of drinking far too much. As a result of that, this is what has occurred and he has suffered considerable public approbation,” he said.

“He accepts that to a large extent he deserves it. If there was ever a case where a young man has learnt an extremely hard lesson, this is it. This has been an awful and salutary lesson for him. He is terrified.”

The judge, who adjourned the case until November 26 and ordered a pre-sentence report by the Probation Service, said that he accepted that Laing regretted his actions and gave him credit for making “a full and complete admission” at the first opportunity.

“Carnage is the name of the organisation who promote this type of activity,” the judge said. “Some might say that somebody [from that company] should be standing alongside you this morning, but that would take away where your responsibility lies.

“The image of your urinating on the poppy wreath at the war memorial in this city will make most turn away in disgust, shock and sadness. It has undoubtedly distressed and upset many. The war memorial is a sacred and special place. The court takes a very serious view of this offence.”

Varsity Leisure Group Ltd, which owns the Carnage UK brand, is owned by Paul Bahia, 29, a Birmingham University graduate. Carnage UK operates drinking events at university towns and cities across the country. An estimated 350,000 students take part every year.

Undergraduates paid £10 for a ticket to last month’s pub crawl in Sheffield. In return, they received a T-shirt and access to a series of pubs and bars along a route policed by stewards.

A company spokesman said yesterday: “Varsity Leisure Group . . . does not promote the commission of criminal offences. It is highly defamatory to suggest that it does.”

Source: The Times online - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6903625.ece

It has been described as the nation's biggest white elephant, but a Cambridge college has seen the O2 Arena's potential as a cash cow, snapping it up for £24 million. The arena, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, has been bought by Trinity College, the wealthiest Cambridge college and one of the UK's biggest landowners. It expects to see a return on its investment of more than £1.6 million this year, it was reported on 10 October.

Source: Times Higher Education,  Thursday, 15th October, 2009