Curtin Sarawak students compete in global programming competition

Miri – 14 November 2016 – 33 student members of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Student Branch of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) recently took part in the global IEEEXtreme 10.0 Competition, a virtual online programming competition that pits international teams against each other to solve a wide variety of programming problems.

The students formed multiple teams of three members each to compete in the 24-hour competition, which was held simultaneously at different locations around the world. Each team was monitored by a grade member for quality assurance.

The objective of IEEEXtreme is to provide a platform for students to enhance their interest in programming and their programming skills and members of the student branch have been taking part since 2012.

Prior to competing each year, the student branch organises training workshops for its registered participants to help them boost their confidence and competency.

This year, the participants attended two workshops, namely ‘Programming with Python’  facilitated by third-year computer and networking system student Ronny Choon Kyn Ling and ‘Refresh your C++ Coding’ by head of the Department of Foundation in Engineering and Science Foad Motalebi.

According to Dr Garenth Lim King Hann, advisor to the student branch and proctor of IEEEXtreme 10.0 at Curtin Sarawak, competitions like IEEEXtreme challenge bright minds at universities across the world to apply their coding logic and learn more about using programming language to communicate with machines.

“For young engineers, having a strong background in coding would be an advantage in their careers as such skills are highly sought after in many industries in this current information era. Global companies such as Intel, Motorola Solution, Google and Samsung require more and more engineers who can code,” said Dr Lim.

Third-year electrical power engineering student Alex Tai Yi JIac, who participated in the competition for the second time, said the key to solving programming problems is not to start coding directly but to write down all the steps and possible errors that might be encountered and working your way up from the possible errors.

“This year’s questions were a lot more challenging but we enjoyed solving them. I highly recommend that other students take part in the competition next year,” said Tai.

Tai’s course mate Kong Sheng How said that although it was a gruelling 24 hours, he was able to analyse and solve problems using the optimisation method of mathematics, and at the same time, sharpen his logical, creative and innovative thinking skills.

The IEEEXtreme 10.0 event at Curtin Sarawak was supported by IEEE Malaysia Section and three of the university’s industry partners – Kiva Enterprise, Perunding Kinakota Sdn Bhd and Marudy Engineering Sdn Bhd.

Curtin Sarawak students in action during the competition.

Curtin Sarawak students who participated in IEEEXtreme 10.0.