This year Sarawak Open Source Competition received very good response from Engineering and IT undergraduates of the State’s major universities such as Curtin University of Technology in Miri, University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Swinburne University of Technology in Kuching. This is the second time the competition is being held.

The competition is an initiative of the Sarawak Government to promote and encourage the community in the adoption or development of solutions using Open Source software as the cheaper alternative. The aim of this year’s competition is to promote the development of homegrown Open Source software among our youth. Young local talents are given the encouragement to prove their ability and knowledge by building intelligent systems using cheaper and viable alternative open software sources.

The fact that Open Source software codes are readily available on the Internet and allow for free use and customisation offers legitimate alternative to software piracy, and also give way for better software to evolve over time.

The organisers, Sarawak Information Systems Sdn. Bhd. (SAINS) in collaboration with Information Communication Technology Unit (ICTU) of the Chief Minister’s Department, were very pleased with the results. A total of RM10,000 in prize money donated by SAINS was up for grabs.

During the period of the competition, participants were required to follow through 5 stages: submitting of proposals describing the analysis, design, development and deployment of the proposed application or system; short listing of proposals by panel of judges from both ICTU and SAINS; project implementation to build up the proposed system; project presentation and demonstration by the participants; and judging and selection of winners based on the 6 criteria of creativity, functionality, user friendliness, flexibility of use, quality of software and development effort.

At the Prize Giving Ceremony held today at Level 20, Wisma Bapa Malaysia, the Chairman of SAINS, Y.B. Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, who is also the Chairman of State Information Technology Resources Council (SITRC), congratulated and presented the prizes to the winners.

Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George, in his speech said, “In the State Public Sector, the Government is keeping track on the Open Source as a technology and is adopting it for use in areas where it can bring benefits to the agencies. However, we encourage everyone in the community including institutions and businesses to also participate in this Open Source paradigm, not only to adopt and use but also to go into development of solutions.”

“I would like to hereby thank all the participants for taking interest in this competition and to congratulate the winners for the good work. Do keep it up and come back again next time,” he added.

Mr. Lai Chiong Ching, an undergraduate of Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Miri, bags the First Prize with his winning software, File Injection and Retrieval Application version 2 (FIRA2). Lai Chiong Ching wins RM6, 000 in cash prize.

In essence, FIRA2 is a file steganography – an encryption application written in java script that compresses or hides text messages inside bitmap image files. For those not familiar with the term, steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message; this is in contrast to cryptography, where the existence of the message itself is not disguised, but the content is obscured. The system is also built with password locking for better-secured protection against tampering attempts.

The Second Prize goes to a team of three undergraduates from Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Miri. The team, consisting of David Wong Liang Tai, Chan Chen Shyang and John Lau Kah Soon, win RM3,000 prize money with their software entitled Reprogrammable Intelligent Battery Charger or RIBAC 1.0.

RIBAC 1.0 is a smart battery charger that takes advantage of embedded programming using a microcontroller to monitor a NiCd or NiMH battery charging condition without overcharging the battery, thus increasing the life span of a rechargeable battery

The Third Prize winner, Mr. Aravinth K.Manogarn, is an undergraduate from University of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). He won a cash prize of RM1,000 for his innovative software entitled Interactive Kuching City Map. It provides suggestion of travel plan for the tourist according to their interest and demand and is ideal software for tourism related companies to promote their products.

Other winning softwares are Bats Biodiversity Database with Google Maps (Consolation Prize I), Food Stop Open Source Blog (Consolation Prize II), and Linux Printing System or LPS (Consolation Prize III).

Also present during the Prize Giving Ceremony are En. William Nyigor, Director of ICT Unit; Mr. Teo Tien Hiong, CEO of SAINS; Prof. Dr. Khairuddin Abd Hamid, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UNIMAS; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chua Han Bing, Director of School of Engineering & Science, Curtin University Sarawak Campus; Dr. Justo Amador Diaz, Professor of Information Systems and Director of Quality Assurance, Swinburne University Sarawak Campus and other representatives of the local educational institutions.

For more information on the competition, visit http://opensource.emoss.com.my.