A proud win for QIUP
QUEST International University Perak (QIUP) beat nine other finalists from universities across Malaysia to win the coveted IBM Mobilithon 2013 competition.
Called UniStat, QIUP’s mobile application serves to fulfil the desire of students who need additional ways to keep in touch while on the go about campus events, news alerts, accessing campus directories and maps and other features.
Once completed, UniStat will provide realworld solutions to students studying in universities, colleges and institutions.
Elated QIUP team leader Kanahavalli Mardamutu said, “We were surprised to be the winner. We had very strong competition from our fellow finalists.”
Other members of the victorious team were Ryan Anthony Lim, Chun Mun Chung and Ng Wei Kit, all undergraduates of the Bachelor in Computer Science programme.
Kanahavalli further explained what the UniStat is all about. “UniStat is a mobile application for universities and colleges that can be implemented in their administrative and management system to ensure a faster, assured and cheaper communication solution based on the current lifestyle.
“With the government giving every student an incentive of RM250 to purchase a smartphone, this seems the best solution for students to keep in touch with the happenings at university.”
More than 200 proposals were submitted by universities across Malaysia for this competition with 37 shortlisted for the development stage. Finally, 10 proposals were invited for the final round of presentation held at the One World hotel in Petaling Jaya where the QIUP team was crowned champion.
For this feat, the QIUP team received RM5,000 in cash prizes and additional benefits.
Second place went to the team from University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) while third place was won by the team from Kolej Bandar Utama (KBU).
QIUP chief operating officer Nicholas Goh said the university is very proud because this achievement is a testament to QIUP’s philoso- phy of producing graduates who excel in their respective areas of study.
“I also wish to thank the teaching staff at the university who have inculcated a spirit of competition among students. My special gratitude goes to the teaching staff of the School of Engineering and Computer Technology under the Faculty of Integrative Sciences and Technology,” he added.
School of Engineering and Computer Technology vice dean, Professor Dr Bhanu Bhaskara was very impressed with the achievement of the QIUP team as this was the first time the team was using the IBM platform to develop the mobile application, which was a prerequisite for the competition.
“The QIUP team had to first study the platform and then develop the mobile application. All this was done in a short period of about three weeks. That is a real achievement and I truly commend the team for this feat.
“As part of winning the IBM Mobilithon 2013, the QIUP team have been offered three months full-time internship with IBM to further develop UniStat from its prototype stage currently to fully functioning mobile application.
“After the application is fully developed, it can then be considered for commercialisation,” said Prof Bhanu.
Other proposals making it to the final round came from Universiti Teknikal Melaka Malaysia (two proposals), Asia Pacific University (two proposals), Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College and Universiti Putra Malaysia.
IBM Mobilithon 2013 is a mobile app development contest to solve any issues commonly found today and is open to students studying in universities in Malaysia.
For details on QIUP, look out for the advertisement in this StarSpecial.