from Engineering and IT undergraduates of the State's major
universities such as Curtin University of Technology in Miri,
University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Swinburne University of
Technology in Kuching. This is the second time the competition is being
held.
competition is an initiative of the Sarawak Government to promote and
encourage the community in the adoption or development of solutions
using Open Source software as the cheaper alternative. The aim of this
year's competition is to promote the development of homegrown Open
Source software among our youth. Young local talents are given the
encouragement to prove their ability and knowledge by building
intelligent systems using cheaper and viable alternative open software
sources.
The
fact that Open Source software codes are readily available on the
Internet and allow for free use and customisation offers legitimate
alternative to software piracy, and also give way for better software
to evolve over time.
organisers, Sarawak Information Systems Sdn. Bhd. (SAINS) in
collaboration with Information Communication Technology Unit (ICTU) of
the Chief Minister's Department, were very pleased with the results. A
total of RM10,000 in prize money donated by SAINS was up for grabs.
the period of the competition, participants were required to follow
through 5 stages: submitting of proposals describing the analysis,
design, development and deployment of the proposed application or
system; short listing of proposals by panel of judges from both ICTU
and SAINS; project implementation to build up the proposed system;
project presentation and demonstration by the participants; and judging
and selection of winners based on the 6 criteria of creativity,
functionality, user friendliness, flexibility of use, quality of
software and development effort.
At the Prize Giving Ceremony held today at Level 20, Wisma Bapa Malaysia, the Chairman of SAINS, Y.B. Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, who is also the Chairman of State Information Technology Resources Council (SITRC), congratulated and presented the prizes to the winners.
Lai Chiong Ching, an undergraduate of Curtin University of Technology
Sarawak Campus, Miri, bags the First Prize with his winning software,
File Injection and Retrieval Application version 2 (FIRA2). Lai Chiong
Ching wins RM6, 000 in cash prize.
In
essence, FIRA2 is a file steganography – an encryption application
written in Java script that compresses or hides text messages inside
bitmap image files. For those not familiar with the term, steganography
is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no
one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the
message; this is in contrast to cryptography, where the existence of
the message itself is not disguised, but the content is obscured. The
system is also built with password locking for better-secured
protection against tampering attempts.
The
Second Prize goes to a team of three undergraduates from Curtin
University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Miri. The team, consisting of
David Wong Liang Tai, Chan Chen Shyang and John Lau Kah Soon, win
RM3,000 prize money with their software entitled Reprogrammable Intelligent Battery Charger or RIBAC 1.0.
1.0 is a smart battery charger that takes advantage of embedded
programming using a microcontroller to monitor a NiCd or NiMH battery
charging condition without overcharging the battery, thus increasing
the life span of a rechargeable battery.
The
Third Prize winner, Mr. Aravinth K-Manogarn, is an undergraduate from
University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). He won a cash prize of RM1,000
for his innovative software entitled Interactive Kuching City Map. It
provides suggestion of travel plan for the tourist according to their
interest and demand and is ideal software for tourism related companies
to promote their products.
Other
winning softwares are Bats Biodiversity Database with Google Maps
(Consolation Prize I), Food Stop Open Source Blog (Consolation Prize
II), and Linux Printing System or LPS (Consolation Prize III).
!["Mr.]("../../lensa/opensource.jpg")
Lai Chiong Ching, an undergraduate of Curtin University of Technology
Sarawak Campus, Miri,
bags the First Prize with his winning software,
File Injection and Retrieval Application version 2 (FIRA2)
