2025 Perse Rouse Award winners announced

The winners of this year’s Perse Rouse Award have received praise for the high quality of their research projects.

The Rouse Award is an internally assessed independent research programme for Lower Sixth students in which subject specialist teachers help guide their investigations.

A panel featuring renowned academics, including Dr Alex Loktionov (OP 2011), Dr Jonathan Shanahan, Professor Clare Chambers, Professor Ayse Zarakol, David Knight and former Perse computer science teacher Dr Gyorgy Denes, judged the 12 shortlisted entries before deciding upon the winners.

The 2025 winners are:

• Oliver – (Artefact prize): How effective is an automatic follow-spot tracking system made using consumer parts?
• Alice – (Essay prize): To what extent did literary fiction contribute to the success of the British suffrage movement in 1918?
• Luca – (Essay prize): Predicting Bitcoin (BTC-USD) prices using Twitter posts. A sentiment analysis approach.

Perse Head of Research Hazel Knight said: “The panel enjoyed meeting our finalists and hearing about the wide variety of research topics they had pursued.

“They commented on the passion and hard work that had gone into each and every project. They were particularly impressed by the way our winners could talk beyond their project content, understanding the wider context of their work and demonstrating the depth and breadth of their research.

“This year, as in previous years, Perse students completed over 150 Rouse projects and so to reach the final 12 is an incredible achievement. Congratulations to all involved and to the winners, Oliver, Alice and Luca.”

Discover more about independent research opportunities at The Perse on our dedicated Perse Research website.