UK university esports body NSE (National Student Esports) has today announced the 2022 cohort of the Intel FutureGen Programme, which aims to nurture high achieving student leaders and help develop their skills and enhance future careers.
There are 20 students who were selected over the course of a six-hour judging day with industry experts.
The programme gives the UK university community the chance to connect with industry experts, gain knowledge and widen their network over the course of the spring term.
Past programmes have seen a variety of speakers from different areas such as Kieran Holmes-Darby (co-founder and chief gaming officer of Excel Esports), Frankie Ward (esports host, presenter and streamer) and Adam Harris (global head of the brand partnerships studio at Twitch).
The 2022 programme will be the first year that the cohort has been doubled in participant size, with previous years only offering ten spaces to the university students.
A variety of online broadcasts and sessions will also take place next year as part of the programme which will be available to everyone, regardless of whether they were successful in their application.
This year’s judging panel consisted of:
- Mitsouko Anderson, Head of Partnerships (Esports), Morgan Sports Law
- Matthew Colclough, Esports Lead, Barclays
- Alex Coulson, Managing Director, NSE
- Adam Fitch, Business Content Lead, Dexerto
- Sophia George, Head of Product Marketing, Guild Esports
- Aaron Sanghera, Account Executive, UK Public Sector & Education – Intel
- Dr Maria Stukoff, Director of the Maker Space, The University of Salford
The full list of the students on the 2022 programme is:
- Adam Carter (Royal Holloway, University Of London, Electronic Engineering)
- Alex Oliver (Durham University, Chemistry)
- Caity Emery (University Of Warwick, Politics, International Studies & Global Sustainable Development)
- Chun Yin Michael Fok (University Of Birmingham, Physics)
- Daria Ionita (University Of Essex, Psychology)
- Edward Joyce (University Of Southampton, Computer Science with Cyber Security)
- Elise Amelia Dennis (Falmouth University, Game Development: Design)
- Jacob Williams (Swansea University, Computer Science Conversion Masters (From Law))
- Joshua Mankelow (University Of Warwick, Mathematics)
- Kai Heale (Durham University, Computer Science)
- Kieran Bourbery (Heriot-Watt University, Computer Science)
- Lauryn Halpenny (University Of Leeds, Advertising and Marketing)
- Lily Djahanbakhsh (Roehampton University, Criminology)
- Meg Stemman Sunshine (The University Of Manchester, English Literature)
- Ollie Mcferran (Bangor University, English Language with Creative Writing)
- Richard Sykora (University Of Essex, Data Science And Analytics)
- Rory Singer (Nottingham Trent University, Esports Production)
- Sang Tae Lee (Coventry University, Sport Management)
- Sara Leghari (Staffordshire University London, Esports)
- Zainuddin Mohammed (Brunel University London, Computer Science)
Intel extended its partnership with NSE for a third consecutive year, earlier this year.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
