Curtin University of Technoloy

Swinburne students take top honours

By RINTOS MAIL
rintos@thestar.com.my

A FIVE-MEMBER team from Swinburne University Sarawak grabbed the first prize in this year’s Sarawak Information System Sdn Bhd (Sains) Open Source Competition.

Comprising Wendy Japutra Jap, Hsu Mon Lwin, Jofry Hadi Sutanto, Leo Ho Vinh Nghiep and Nikuni Mahesh Jain, the team yesterday walked away with RM3,000 plus certificates for their Sub Surface Profiling System.

The sub Surface Profiling System is intended to help civil engineers perform interpolation of soil profiles.

Traditionally, the soil profiles are drawn manually, which is both time-consuming and prone to human error.

The Sub Surface profiling System addresses these problems by creating a program that generates a soil profile according to soil data, which is faster and more accurate than a manually drawn profile.

The system, which is a web-based application, allows users from any where to register themselves in order to gain access to and contribute to the database.

Li Peng and Shaun Tan Mun Weng from Curtin University of Technology bagged RM1,500 for their Green Flow project.

Green Flow is a web-based work-flow management system designed as part of an office automation systems.

In addition to the ability of a traditional work-flow management system to automate form processing and work-flows, Green Flow is able to dynamically store multiple form template designs and their form processing work-flows in a single system.

Low Jia Wei, also from Curtin University, won the third prize amounting RM500 with his open source Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Aerial Photography.

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan gave away the prizes to the winners at a ceremony held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.

The Open Source competition was first held in 2004 with the aim of promoting the use of open source software and to encourage local ICT talents to explore the usage of open source technology to develop software for business applications.

The competition this year was targeted at the new generation of software engineers, developers and programmes in institutes of higher learning in Sarawak who have the interest and talent but lack the resources to develop their visions.

Amazing app ideas

A TOTAL of 59 secondary school students recently took part in the MSC Malaysia-Curtin ICT Career Camp held at Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak).

Themed “Ignite the Spark”, the camp was organised by Curtin Sarawak’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University Life Department and the Curtin Young Associates, and supported and sponsored by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).

During the two-day camp, participants learnt how to use Google’s App Inventor, a mobile application development software downloadable from
http://appinventor.googlelabs.com for creating simple applications for the Android platform.

Dr Ashutosh presenting the mock cheque to winning team members Fazira, Rhonda, Intan Farisha, Siti Rayhan and Nurhazimah while Suresh looks on.

Apart from designing and developing their own Android applications, the participants were taught how to market their creations.

Grouped into 12 teams comprising students of different schools, the students also participated in team-building activities to build their team dynamics.

The students were from SMK Chung Hua Miri, SMK Lutong, SMK St Joseph Miri, SMK Pujut Miri, SMK Lopeng Tengah, SMK Merbau, Kolej Tun Dato Haji Bujang, SMK Baru and SM Sains.

“I was amazed at the ideas presented by the students during the camp,” said camp facilitator and lecturer Terence Tan.

“Coincidentally, one of their ideas is being developed by our own Dr Wong Kiing Ing,” he added.

Fellow lecturer Suresh Reuben concurred, saying: “All the teams came up with good ideas which, when summarised, all pointed to one thing – mobile phones are becoming our ‘sixth sense’.

“The phone of the future will likely contain things like heat and heartbeat sensors to monitor our health, terrain sensors to aide the blind, and so on,” he added.

In the presentation session at the end of the camp, a panel of judges awarded points to each team for their presentations and ideas. The winning team received RM500, while the second and third placed teams received RM300 and RM200.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department head Assoc Prof Dr Ashutosh Kumar Singh awarded the prizes.

“Team 6A” — comprising Fazira Nan, Rhonda Ashley, Intan Farisha Khalid, Siti Rayhan Hasmadi and Nurhazimah Saufie — emerged the winners.

Their idea of incorporating the functions of debit or credit cards and ATM cards into mobile phones — where users need only “swipe” their phones over payment machines for purchases — was deemed the most innovative.

According to Fazira, the idea was conceptualised to solve the problem of users forgetting their personal identification numbers or not being able to locate ATMs for cash withdrawals.

To counter phone theft or hacking, the team suggested incorporating biometric scanners like thumb-print scanners into the phones to prevent unauthorised use.

The team members said that they would continue to work towards making the application a reality. They added that they enjoyed working as a team and greatly appreciated the knowledge they gained from the camp, especially the importance of teamwork, patience and critical thinking.

Meanwhile, over 1,000 students of the university will graduate from various pre-university and degree programmes this May, the highest number of graduands the university has seen since its establishment in 1999. This year’s graduation ceremony will be the university’s 10th.

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, who is chairman of the Curtin Sarawak Campus Council, is expected to officiate at both the Graduation Ceremony and Award and Scholarship Ceremony.

Curtin Sarawak chief executive and pro vice-chancellor Prof Ian Kerr, Curtin University chancellor Dr Jim Gill, as well as members of the Curtin Sarawak Campus Council and management board, will also attend the events.

There will also be a dinner for the university’s alumni on May 7. Former students interested in attending may call 085-443939 ext 3926 (Imong Gani) or e-mail
alumni@curtin.edu.my.

The university has produced close to 2,000 graduates since its establishment.