award

We have a good news to share!

The School of Technology along with Forensics and Security Research Center (FSEC), recently organized the CompTIA Partner Summit Awards in which Datuk Parmjit Singh, CEO of APIIT Education Group on behalf of APU, received the “Rising Star Award – Academy Sector in Asia Pacific Region” from the President and CEO of CompTIA, Mr Todd Thibodeaux.  It was a remarkable milestone and a very proud moment for the FSEC team.

Mr Todd gave us a talk on his valuable industrial experience on cyber security and digital forensics titled, “The Global Trends in IT industry” which was followed by John McGlinchey, the Vice President of CompTIA, who presented the CompTIA certification roadmap and its value in the industry. 

As part of the award ceremony, APU students who have been certified with CompTIA Project+ received their certificates directly from Mr Todd. A token of appreciation was awarded to Nehru Nagappan, Dr Meisam and Dr Maryam for their contributions to the training conducted for the certification programmes, student competitions and industry links in the project management, forensics and cyber security areas. In addition, APU has now entered into an initial agreement to launch its first official CompTIA student Branch. We look forward to hearing more success stories in the upcoming academic year of 2017-2018!

Our students made us proud again! 

Team YOLO, comprising Nicholas Ian Nonis, Choong Chih Xien and Goh Eu Gene, bagged the 1st Runner Up position of the UTP-HAX National Hacking Competition, which was organised by Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS on the 13th and 14th of November 2015. The competition saw participation from more than 40 teams, who came from local private and public universities.

3 teams of students represented APU in the competition: Team YOLO, Team EZ (Alexandr Suhameraa, Maray Omaraliev, Ahmed Nabil Al-Eryani) and Team NACHOS (Toong Chee Sheng, Syahmi Suleiman, Mohamed Siddiq Rahmat). The competition was intense – as students had to scan, test, hack, defend and use creative and constructive methods to secure their system. Throughout the competition, our students, who were from the APU Cyber Security & Forensic Club (CSFC), demonstrated outstanding effort and excellent teamwork; in which Team YOLO and Team NACHOS managed to enter the semi-finals, while Team YOLO eventually stood out as one of the finalists of the competition.

Other than securing remarkable positions at the competition, our students demonstrated their outstanding problem-solving ability – as Team YOLO attain 3 Bounty Awards (a special award given to the first team to solve a challenge), whereas Team EZ bagged 1 Bounty Award as well. 

Apart from the prizes and achievement they accomplished, these students were also exposed to memorable experiences of performing their best under pressure. The UTP-HAX was a good platform for them to seed creativity, foster innovation and stimulate teamwork among themselves. Congratulations to the teams and thumbs up to their coaches: Mr. Yogeswaran Nathan, Mr. Sulaiman bin Harun, Ms. Yusnita Yusof and Mr. Khoo Li Jing for their guidance and dedication in managing the teams.

As part of MDeC’s efforts to position Malaysia as a Big Data Hub in ASEAN, the National Big App Challenge 2.0 was organised to provide a platform for teams, start-ups, software companies and students to showcase their Big Data applications to the Malaysian market. As differed from the previous National Big App Challenge, MDeC provided “twice the fun” as they divided the challenge into two categories: the Cyberjaya City Hacks and the OpenGov Hacks. 
 
Our team of APU students excelled in both categories; as they were announced as the Top 5 Finalist of the Cyberjaya City Hacks and the Top 10 finalist of the OpenGov Hacks. Despite stiff competition from industry experts and software companies, our students impressed the judges with their outstanding skills, as they became the only student team selected into the finals of Cyberjaya City Hacks! Among all the universities and industry professionals that participated, APU team was the highest placed university / tertiary team.

The National Big App Challenge 2.0 was a platform up to industry standards, as it involved a series of selection and judging processes, which were catered for the participation of industry experts and software companies. Our team, who named themselves “Analytical System Solvers”, prepared for the Ideation & Validation, Hack & Pitch and Video Submission processes under the guidance of their mentor, Mr Manoj Jayabalan. At the finals, our students had the opportunity to meet the team of judges and VIPs, which was made up of industry experts such as Mr. Richard Stirling from Open Data Institute, UK, YBhg. Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia (Prime Minister’s Department) and YBhg. Dato’ Seri Zainal Rahim bin Seman, General Director of  The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU). 
 
Congratulations and well done to Wayne See Wei Earn, Azhar bin Anuar Veera, Chong Yeong Dee and Swee Tze Xiang for their dedicated effort over the three months of competition. Special thanks to their mentor, Mr Manoj Jayabalan, APCA group, Prof. Dr. Ir. Vinesh Thiruchelvam and Ms. Hema Latha Krishna Nair for guiding and monitoring the students’ progress! We are proud of the students’ achievements and delighted to see that they have gained more exposure towards the Big Data industry through this platform created by MDeC.

Under the mentorship of Shubatra Shanmugaretnam and Rohizan Ahmad from the School of Accounting, Finance and Quantitative Studies (SAFIQS) and the School of Business & Management, a team of APU students made it as one of the finalists at the recently concluded CIMA Global Business Challenge Malaysia 2015. Team ROSH Consultant whose talented, dedicated and ambitious members were Aminath Shafeeq, Baskaran Muniandy, Suha Mahmood and Tan Lim Wei. Their success in the competition was based on their detailed analysis and awesome presentation of a business case study.

The finals of the challenge was held on Monday, 15th June 2015 at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) which saw participation of 53 teams from various institutions of higher learning. A total of 3 teams from APU participated in the event. The CIMA Global Business Challenge is an annual effort by Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in partnership with Barclays, to develop and nurture young talents around the world and to bring out the best in the young business leaders of tomorrow.

The Challenge provided students with great exposure to real-world business and management, as well as provided them with the golden opportunity for them to showcase their talents in business management and to learn to become successful business leaders of the future. Our appreciation as well to all students who participated in the challenge and thumbs up to the mentors for your dedicated effort!