A British-government funded competition aiming to solve environmental issues through grid computing has announced its winners.

The "Grid Computing for a Greener Planet" competition kicked off in July with entry tracks for both professional and non-professional entrants.

Christos Melissidis, an MSc student from Cranfield University, won first prize in the non-professional track for his virtual model of the ecosystem designed to solve environmental issues. Melissidis' model feeds real-time data—from the Weather Channel, for example— into the ecosystem and measures the response.

First place in the professional track went to Nick Pringle, an IT consultant, for his predictive traffic flow model that enhances GPS data by submitting route information to a grid computing system. Pringle's system could potentially calculate journey time based on how many people are taking a route at any given time.

Melissidis and Pringle each received a one year membership to the British Computing Society and a week-long apprenticeship at the National Science e-Centre. Melissidis also received an XBox 360 Elite, while Pringle received a Sony VAIO laptop.