THE opportunity to take part in the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards in Jakarta, Indonesia, was the experience of a lifetime for secondary and tertiary students from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Multimedia University (MMU), Foon Yew High School, and SMKA Tok Jiring, Kuala Terengganu.

The students who participated in the week-long event were winners of the MSC Malaysia APICTA competition, held on Oct 15.

An annual event to recognise innovators and entrepreneurs in the ICT sector, the APICTA awards had 16 different categories for participants to choose from.

According to Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDeC) marketing and branding vice-president Ahmad Niran Mohammad Noor, APICTA aims “to open up opportunities for small and medium enterprises in the ICT sector to be recognised by their respective industries.”

“What is more important is what happens to these organisations after the competition,” said Ahmad Niran, adding that the fact that the organisations have won at the national level competition meant they had the means and substance to succeed in the real world.

Past winners have gone on to make their mark in the industry. An example is Les’ Copaque Production Sdn Bhd, which created the much loved animation Upin dan Ipin. While APICTA is open to people of all ages from all areas of ICT, APICTA International chairman Stephen Lau emphasised that they especially encourage students to participate.

“It is a good platform for them to gain exposure in the industry as well as to be exposed to different cultures,” said Lau.

Presenting their ideas to an international crowd also challenges their confidence and hones marketing skills, he added.

MMU electrical engineering undergraduates Ko Chuan Zhen, 24, and Leong Hon Chan, 23, were overjoyed when they were named winners in the Best of Tertiary Student Project category.

“We didn’t think it was possible for us to win because our project is not completely linked to ICT,” said Chuan Zhen who, with his partner, designed a solar powered offline car ventilation system.

The aim of their project is to use renewable energy to extract heat from a car, since cars tend to get overheated when left for too long under the sun.

“Hopefully we can patent our project and find sponsors for it since we had such positive response from the judges,” said Hon Chan.

The Malaysian team also did us proud in the Best of Secondary Student Project category, when Foon Yew High School in Johor won the Merit award with its device called the Remote Rescuing Unit, a miniature model car with numerous functions which can be used in rescue operations in military or disaster areas.

A similar event will be held again next year in Melbourne, Australia.

Students of SMKA Tok Jiring, Kuala Terengganu:

WE are very grateful to have reached this level. This is our first time participating in APICTA. Although we did not win, we had the experience of a lifetime, presenting our ideas in front of a large international audience and attending the gala dinner.

This competition also gave us the chance to exchange ideas with delegates from other countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore. We also got to see entries from other countries, and were able to see where our project stood, when compared to entries from other countries.

On our third day in Jakarta, we had the chance to ride the TransJakarta, a special bus with its own lane that operates much like our LRT system in Kuala Lumpur. We managed to catch the beautiful sights of the city, and learnt a bit about its culture.

We hope to participate APICTA again next year.

Unimas students, Joyce Lee and Lina Chai:

THROUGH participating in this competition, we learnt that winning should not be our sole purpose and goal. What matters is whether the systems we designed are able to contribute to society.

The greatest reward for us would be knowing that others can benefit from what we have created.

Coming here and participating in this competition has been a truly great learning experience as we not only had to present our ideas to a large audience but also had to hold the judges’ interest and show them the commerical value of our project.

source : The Star Online