Three of the brightest students from Sussex have won awards for their work with local businesses.

The three were among 19 from the county to take part in Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP), a scheme which gives students work experience matched to their degree courses.

A variety of projects were undertaken in such areas as IT, web-site creation, marketing, electronic and mechanical engineering design and DNA sequencing.

Written submissions had to be handed in and assessed prior to the local finals day.

Three judges - Paul Stoggles, of Sussex Enterprise, Jerry Hammett, of Shell Marine Products, and Norman Boyland, vice-president of SmithKline Beecham - had to decide who would go through to the South East regional finals.

The STEP scheme offers real work experience to penultimate-year students and allows them to make a genuine contribution to their host companies, introducing new technologies.

Sussex agent Patsie Sutcliffe visited all participating firms and students while running the scheme in the county.

Patsie is responsible for finding the local organisations and businesses taking part, which sponsor 50 per cent of the students' £140 salaries paid during the eight-week placements.

Nine out of ten companies taking part in the scheme said their STEP student had an immediate and positive impact on their business.

For every £1 invested, an improvement of £6 to bottom-line profits resulted.

First place was awarded to Marcus Whitney, studying environmental resource management.

He was placed with Simplantex Direct in Hastings to carry out a project on market research/planning and was sponsored by Sussex Enterprise.

He received a cheque for £100 and is now through to the South East regional finals.

Second place went to Stuart Roberts, who won £75 for carrying out a project on website creation with Talking Newspapers Sussex at Heathfield. He was also sponsored by Sussex Enterprise.

Stuart is currently attending the University of Sussex to gain a degree in computer science artificial intelligence.

Third place and £50 was awarded to Sara Morland, who is studying marketing.

She was placed with Welland Medical Ltd in Crawley, where she carried out a medical marketing research project. She was sponsored by Crawley Borough Council.

The regional finals are being held in London later today.