Press Release AsiaStudent .NET 2002 Finals

January 21, 2003

For Immediate Release

Kuala Lumpur: Students from the Malacca campus of the Multimedia University emerged as the top prize winners of the Microsoft AsiaStudent.NET 2002 software development competition. The team comprising its supervisor Chong Chee Way, team leader Cheok Yan Cheng, Steve Foo Chit Chin and Ng Jin Hui received the grand prize of RM10,000 and an all expense paid trip to the next AsiaStudent.NET international competition.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) took the second spot and the prize money of RM5,000. Students from Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT) secured the third place and walked away with a cash prize of RM2,000. Consolation prizes went to the next two teams from Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU) and the second team from APIIT. They also received Microsoft’s software development tools.

All of the five finalists developed their respective software applications using the latest .NET technology and Web services. The winners from MMU developed an application known as the Remote Surveillance System (RSS). The system provides motion detection through a video surveillance software that captures images only when triggered by movements, providing time stamped video surveillance files of events as they occur without recording inactivity between events. The software, with its powerful motion detection algorithm, offers high quality, affordable video surveillance for home or office users. The MMU RSS technology supports Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP.

The more than six-month-long event, which commenced in May 2002, was opened to all students who are currently pursuing their computer science or information technology studies at all local institutions of higher learning. Students from as many as 30 different colleges and universities participated in the grueling competition which included having to undergo several rigorous rounds of screening before they were selected for the Finals. Among others, the Finalists were required to submit their project documentations to the Contest Secretariat to be evaluated by a panel of judges. The competition was organised by Microsoft Corporation's subsidiary, Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd, in collaboration with i2Media Sdn Bhd, a media and technology solutions specialist.

Tan Loke Uei, the competition manager from Microsoft was pleased with the outcome of the competition. As he put it, “Overall, we were pleased with the results. We will now venture forth to prepare the winning team for global competition in the AsiaStudent.NET international finals this year.” In addition to winning the title and prizes, the top prize winners will represent Malaysia for the international competition in February. “The intellectual property rights to the winning applications belong solely to the contestants,” Tan said, adding that Microsoft maintains a strong stand on software copyright and anti-piracy. “What the winners intend to do with the application they developed remains entirely in their hands.”

Microsoft's endeavours, through AsiaStudent.NET, is aimed at igniting interests in software development and mentoring these talents to shape the next generation of professional developers in Malaysia. As Tan succinctly put it, “We want to develop a generation of software developers in Malaysia. To date, we have been more of software users; not creators.” This objective is clearly in line with the aspirations of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and the government’s vision to make Malaysia a regional software development hub.

Tan added: “At Microsoft we see great potential in Malaysia when it comes to software development. The talents are right here in our own backyard. The trick is how do we ‘cut’ and ‘polish’ these software development diamonds and turn them into precious software development jewels. We believe the AsiaStudent.NET competition is a great place to start.”

daniel@i2media.com.my 


Released on behalf of Microsoft Knowledge Capital Centre Sdn Bhd by i2Media Sdn Bhd. For more information, kindly contact Daniel Tsen at +60-12-2360072 or e-mail