A BALLYMENA computer science student has won a £2,000 design prize for a phone app he developed.

Glenn Sayers' Budget Wise app has been downloaded over 10,500 times and earned him the 2011 Awesome App prize at Ireland's first App Camp.

Run by Belfast IT firm Kainos, the camp taught eight students how to design and develop new apps for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices.

Glenn, a student at the University of Ulster's Magee campus, developed an app to help users track their finances and manage their budgets.

The iTunes site recommends: "Wise up and keep out of the red and into the black with the help of Budget Wise."

At one stage it was listed in Apple's top 10 apps.

Kainos presented Glenn with £2,000 worth of the latest Apple technologies and he has been offered a placement year at Kainos as part of his degree course. He has also been asked to create a tourism app for Ballymena Borough Council.

Tom Gray, chief technology officer at Kainos, said: "Glenn and the other seven students deserve great credit for their achievements. App Camp shows that collaboration between forward-thinking businesses and the education sector can deliver excellent results.

"They are also essential if we are to deliver on the Government's plans for a strong and thriving knowledge-based economy in Northern Ireland."

Dr Michaela Black, senior lecturer at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, said: "This entire programme has been a tremendous success and Kainos also deserves credit for recognising the potential and bringing App Camp to life.

"We look forward to working closely with them in the future as App Camp provides an ideal opportunity for students to apply the knowledge and skills they have gained from their course. Programmes of this nature also offer huge potential for enhancing personal development and employment."