BICTA winners to represent Brunei in APICTA

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Category: News

Published on Sunday, 18 December 2011 16:07

Six ICT teams comprising students to tech savvy private companies will be representing Brunei Darussalam in the annual Asia Pacific ICT Award (APICTA) from November 8 until 11 in Pattaya, Thailand.

APICTA is an international awards programme that aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in closing the digital divide by providing networking and product benchmarking opportunities to ICT innovators and entrepreneurs in the region. The programme is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer and offer business matching opportunities through exposure to venture capitalisation and investors.

The competing teams are the Brunei ICT Award (BICTA) 2011 winners namely Wa7 Facilities Reservation by Jong Chea Soon and Derby Teo from Chung Hwa Middle School, BSB, Brunei Experience multimedia project by Abdul Rashid Hj Osman, Dk Siti Syuhaidah Pg Hj Bahruddin, Fatin Liyana binti Suhili, Mohd Rafiee Hj Rahim from Sultan Saiful Rijal Tehnical College, Simple Way by Nor Azarina Binti Hj Mohsin, Ya-Anenawati binti Hj Md Yusuf and Farrah Koh Yen Swan from Institut Teknologi Brunei, Social Deal Brunei by HiroTien from Social Buzz Advertising, Islam Brunei Educators by Hajah Salma Bee Hj Abdul Latiff from Crescent Sdn Bhd and last but not least, Brunei Lifestyle Mobile Application by King She Horng of Iplussoft Technology. Each winner of APICTA from Brunei will be given a grant of $50,000 by AITI to further enhance their products into a marketable commercial product.

Participants of the awards programme comprise members of the APICTA alliance. Its 16 member economies include Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Brunei's delegation will be led by Dato Paduka Hj Awang Alaihuddin bin POKDGSL Dato Seri Utama Hj Awang Mohd Taha, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Communications cum chairman of the steering committee of Brunei ICT Award (BICTA).

In an interview with the Bulletin, Wallace Koh Hoe Aik from AITI said, "We always have high hopes for Brunei teams to do well in the competition. Two years ago, we managed to win a number of awards. Last year, Chung Hwa Middle School students won the Merit Award in secondary category in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in the previous year, Mars Enterprise represented by Mr FooBoon Seng and Ms Cleo Garcia won the Merit Award as the top scorers in the e-logistics and supply chain category in Melbourne, Australia. Both of the Merit Award recipients were also given a grant of $25,000 each by AITI to further enhance their products.

He also revealed that next year, Brunei will become the host of the Asia Pacific ICT Award (APICTA) in December. Meanwhile James Kwong, Chung Hwa Middle School's IT Manager expressed confidence in getting an award for Brunei.

Describing their ICT project on Wa7 Facilities Reservation, he said, "It was in 2010 when we came up with the idea of a system to reserve laboratories and lecture hall for students after teachers had problems booking various labs and lecture halls in the newly launched building. The old system was using paper and can sometimes be confusing and time consuming.

"We then came up with a programme to solve the problem by using a simple system to reserve the facilities. The programme was further enhanced after changes were made to be compatible with the iPad and iPhone. We will demonstrate this capability in the APICTA."

In solving the problem of fraud in administration as well as bullies in school, ITB's students came up with the 'Simple Pay' project. According to Ya-Anenawati binti Md Yusuf, "We did a number of surveys in private schools and came up with this payment management system that needs a biometric scanner, barcode reader for student cards, e-cash purchase and SMS notification. This can help prevent fraud in schools, bullies as well as traditional payment notification."

Brunei's executive member representatives at APICTA committee are Hj Yahkup bin Hj Menudin, Chief Executive of AITI and Pg Abd Ghani bin Pg Metussin, the chairman of IFB who will be attending the APICTA 2011 event and annual APICTA general meeting. Brunei is also sending five representatives as APICTA judges in various categories. The judges are Hj Osman bin Hj Ladis and Wallace Koh Hoe Aik from AITI, Pg Sarimah binti Pg Abd Latiff from IFB, Dr Fadzliwati binti Mohiddin from UNISSA and Dr Sophiana Chua Abdullah from CSPS.

The organising committee of APICTA at the Gala Dinner in Pattaya, Thailand will be passing the baton to Brunei as the host of next year's APICTA event.

Source: Borneo Bulletin, 09.11.2011