A total of 18 Engineering undergraduates have been awarded Arthur Shercliff Prizes – a newly established Cambridge fund to honour the memory of former Head of Department Professor Arthur Shercliff.
It is a personal delight to see Shercliff Prizes established at both Cambridge and Warwick in my late father’s memory.
Dr Hugh Shercliff
This is the first time that the Prizes have been awarded, with the aim being to acknowledge achievement in the first year (Part IA) of the Engineering Tripos, in both the examinations and the sustainability-oriented design project. The plan is to present the awards at an annual prize-giving ceremony.
The Prizes are a result of the repurposing of the Arthur Shercliff Memorial Trust, which was established in 1984, following Arthur's death while in post as Head of Department in December 1983. Since that time, the Trust has awarded scholarships for technical visits abroad to Engineering students at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick (where Arthur was also Head of Department). Arthur himself always cited the benefit of his year at Harvard during his studies.
Arthur Shercliff was also renowned for his enthusiasm and innovation in undergraduate teaching, and for the broad curriculum and strong mathematical foundation of the Engineering Tripos.
“For 40 years, the Trust has provided travel scholarships, particularly in the areas of energy and sustainable development, which were well aligned with my late father’s interests,” said Dr Hugh Shercliff, Emeritus Associate Professor and a manager of the fund. “But opportunities for students to work abroad are now commonplace, so we decided it was timely to re-allocate the funds to prizes. It is a personal delight to see Shercliff Prizes established at both Cambridge and Warwick in his memory.”
Arthur Shercliff Tripos Prizes
The Arthur Shercliff Tripos Prizes have been awarded by the examiners for Part IA of the Engineering Tripos to three of the top four candidates in the order of merit in that examination.
The awardees were:
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Alex Momoiu (Jesus College) Joe Tait (St Catharine’s College) Tony Zhang (Trinity College) Jia Xuan Tan (Christ's College) – awarded the Archibald Denny Prize* |
* The Archibald Denny Prize is awarded annually by the examiners for the Part IA Engineering Tripos to the candidate who has shown the greatest distinction in the Theory of Structures in Paper 2. The University, on the recommendation of the Faculty Board of Engineering, may amend these regulations from time to time, provided that the Prize shall always be called the Archibald Denny Prize and shall always be devoted to the encouragement of the study of the Theory of Structures.
Arthur Shercliff Design Project Prizes
The Arthur Shercliff Design Project Prizes have been awarded by the examiners to the top teams in the Part IA Design Project, which saw students on the Cambridge Product Design course compete at the 2025 Grand Finals of the Engineering for People Design Challenge.
The awardees were:
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Team “H2GO” (from Jesus and Christ's Colleges) Abbey Jones Oliver Clements Jaiden Patel Ana Ilie Leo James Benjamin Gombala Amelia Hubbard Eddie Hindson. |
Their design proposal, H2GO, is a water decontamination system combining a two-stage filter with UV light sterilisation, effectively removing cholera bacteria. Read more.
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Team “Improving digital literacy in Makers Valley” (from Christ's College) Boyang Li Amitan Joseph Tin (Thanh) Nguyen Jia Xuan Tan Alex Lander Marcus Lee Zhen Yang Shen. |
Their design proposal is a custom Linux-based operating system that can be installed on a mobile phone, allowing it to be used as both a phone and a desktop computer. A keyboard and monitor are also supplied. A selection of software is pre-installed, optimised for children’s learning. Read more.
