Curtin Sarawak continues winning streak in Sarawak Open Source Competition

Miri – 4 November 2011 – Lue Ik Hong, a research student from Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) outshined students from other institutions of higher learning in the state to claim the first prize at the 2011 Sarawak Open Source Competition.

The award was presented at Sarawak Information Systems Sdn. Bhd. (SAINS) 20th Anniversary Dinner held at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching recently.

Lue’s project entitled ‘Low-cost, scalable, real-time, continuous monitoring and assessment of sewerage system based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)’ was judged the best entry and earned him a RM3,000 cash prize. His project involved designing and implementing WSN and decision support tools for cost-effective, large-scale, real-time, continuous monitoring and assessment of wastewater.

Four other Curtin Sarawak students emerged winners of consolation prizes in the competition. Alex Goh Kwang Leng won a prize for his project entitled ‘A Scalable Information Retrieval Tool for Web Search Engines’ while a team comprising Akilan Thangarajah, King Seh Horng and Nguang Sing Ping walked away with a prize for their ‘Fault Tolerance Automated Voting Machine’ project.

Goh, who is pursuing a Master of Philosophy (Computer Science), described his project as one that aims to reach a deeper understanding of Web crawling and provide an open-sourced Web Crawler as a Web Information Retrieval tool to enhance research and development in this area. According to him, there is much to investigate about Web crawlers – from their model and architecture to scheduling algorithms for optimising performance.

Where efficient election systems are concerned, the ‘Fault Tolerance Automated Voting Machine’ project aims to benefit governments and electorates in the near future. The project is the brainchild of two Curtin Sarawak graduates – Akilan, currently a Master’s student at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and King, now a computer engineer at Iplussoft Technologies, Brunei – and Nguang, a computer system engineering undergraduate.

The head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Curtin Sarawak’s School of Engineering and Science, Associate Professor Dr. Ashutosh Kumar Singh, commended the students on their outstanding achievement. He strongly encourages other students to follow in their footsteps, saying that competitions like the Sarawak Open Source Competition are valuable in enhancing their learning experience, not to mention their portfolios upon graduation.

The prizes were presented by SAINS Chairman Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam and SAINS Chief Executive Officer Dato Teo Tien Hiong.

Other institutions of higher learning that participated in the competition were INTI College Sarawak, MARA University of Technology and Laila Taib College.

The Sarawak Open Source Competition is annual competition open to students from universities and colleges in Sarawak. Its objectives are to continuously advocate the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in the state, promote wider adoption and greater utilisation of Open Source Systems (OSS), develop interest in the younger generation towards adopting and applying open source technologies, as well as spur the development of homegrown open source software among local youth. Submitted projects are evaluated based on their practicality, creativity, innovativeness and effort.

Curtin Sarawak also shined in last year’s competition, in which students Li Peng and Shaun Tan Mun Weng won the second prize for their project entitled ‘Green Flow’, while Low Jia Wei took home the third prize for his ‘Open Source Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Aerial Photography’ project.

For more information on Curtin Sarawak, visit its website at www.curtin.edu.my or e-mail enquiries@curtin.edu.my.

(L-R): Electrical and computer engineering senior lecturer Dr. Wong Kiing Ing (mentor to Lue Ik Hong), Lue Ik Hong and Alex Goh Kwang Leng.