Winner of the European Best Localisation Thesis Award  

(7^th Annual LRC Best Localisation Thesis Award)

sponsored by Symantec Ireland Ltd.

The European Best Localisation Thesis Award seeks to find the best thesis on a localisation-related topic. In its 7th year, the competition allows students who have completed a thesis on a relevant theme within the past two years to submit their work and compete for the prize, generously provided by award sponsor, Symantec. 

This year the Best Thesis Award was presented to Francie Gow for her thesis on Metrics for Evaluating Translation Memory Software. This thesis had the goal of designing and developing a new evaluation methodology that can be used to compare the different search-and-retrieval functions used in TM tools. Click her to download a copy of Francie's thesis.

Francie completed this thesis as part of the degree requirements for an MA in Translation at the University of Ottawa in Canada. She presented her thesis on Monday 17th November as part of the International Localisation Research Conference. She received €1,200 and a copy of Norton Internet Security 2003 as her prize.

“It was an honour to have my thesis selected. So far the best part of the experience has been the opportunity to speak to a roomful of people that are interested in my work and to have the opportunity to learn so much from them too” said Francie. 

Due to the large number and the outstanding quality of theses submitted, the panel decided to give a special mention to two authors: Lorena Guerra for a very well-reasoned MSc thesis submitted to Dublin City University on Human Translation versus Machine Translation and full post-editing of raw machine translation output; and Rob Gillam for a thesis containing an excellent discussion of the issues around cultural adaptation entitled "Designing Effective Design Support for Localisation" and submitted to University College London (UK) for an MSc.