school of computing

Lecturers and students from the School of Computing & Technology demonstrated innovative projects at the Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) 2019 that was held recently. We are pleased to share with you that all 5 projects developed by our teams walked away with awards in both the “Mentor Mentee Awards” and the “Education Innovation Awards” categories.    

We are proud of our teams; it was an amazing experience for the students, while it provides them with real-life exposure and an opportunity to interact with industry professionals.

Earlier this month, we signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with CASUGOL, a Singapore based international certification body, to officially kick-start an inspiring partnership to provide academicians, educators, researchers, and students with the opportunity to receive professional training and get certified in emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Big Data and Cloud Computing.

Based in Singapore, CASUGOL is an international certification body offering a wide range of professional training and certification programs designed for all industries and verticals. Courses designed by CASUGOL are constantly reviewed by educators who are industry experts in their chosen field to ensure that they remain current, relevant and consistently high quality.

As part of this partnership agreement, CASUGOL will serve as a principal and body of knowledge to transfer knowledge and technical know-how on Industry 4.0 related technologies to lecturers, researchers and students at APU and jointly organise courses, workshops, events with APU to encourage and promote the learning and adoption of industry 4.0 related technologies. This agreement also authorizes APU to incorporate and deliver CASUGOL Official Courseware within its academic curriculum.

This partnership is in line with the Malaysian Government’s drive to adopt Industry 4.0 which generally incorporates advanced sensors, machine-to-machine communication links, 3-D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and cloud computing technology.

We are pleased to share that we are one of the universities selected as part of the Malaysia Software Testing Hub (MSTH) Academic Outreach National Rollout programme, initiated by the Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB). Under this programme, we will align our Software Testing and Requirements Engineering subjects under the BSc (Hons) in Software Engineering programmes with industry best practices obtained from the international Book-of-Knowledge. 

To commemorate the occasion, the Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB) held a ceremony to present Partnership certificates to the participating universities. Present to witness the event was Datin Paduka Ir. Dr Siti Hamisah Binti Tapsir, Director-General, Department of Higher Education. Speaking at the ceremony, President of MSTB Puan Mastura Abu Samah said the programme is expected to contribute towards the development of a sustainable supply of future test professionals to meet the demand of this growing, dynamic industry. During the ceremony, Prof. Dr Ir. Vinesh Thiruchelvam and Mr Muhammad Ehsan Rana were present to receive the award on behalf of APU.

This collaboration enhanced our course syllabus and provided us access to exclusive course materials. For instance, we are provided with Software Testing lecture materials that were developed by the German Testing Board and the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany led by Professor Dr Ina Schieferdecker, who is also the director of Fraunhofer FOKUS. On the other hand, we also gained access to Requirements Engineering lecture materials that was custom-developed by a team led by Professor Dr Klaus Pohl, the renowned global expert in the field. In addition, MSTB also provided with extra Lecture Aids and Additional Hands-On Exercises based on local scenarios to complement the lecture materials. Students under the Software Engineering programme will also be given the opportunities to sit for professional certification examinations.

The MSTH Academic Outreach initiative is also in line with the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education), in creating a higher education system that ranks among the world’s leading education systems and that enables Malaysia to compete in the global economy. In line with the collaboration, we are now thrilled to see our course syllabus being enhanced by professional industry input, in which our students will benefit by being exposed to real-life case scenarios and up-to-date knowledge within the Software Engineering field. 

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!

The year of award winnings is not yet over!

We are pleased so share that 3 teams from APU attained all of the top 3 awards, as they emerged as the Champion, 1st Runner-Up and 2nd Runner Up award winners of the Academic Track of Big App Challenge 3.0, that was organized by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). 

In August, the Asia Pacific Centre of Analytics (APCA) organized the APU Data Science Week & the APU Big Data Week Hackathon, which served as a qualifying round into the semi-finals and the later stages of the challenge. The challenge took place over several months; participants had to attend several rounds of ideas and prototype presentations, workshops and debate sessions upon the panel of judges, who were appointed by MDEC, before advancing to the Semi Finals and Grand Finals. 

We are also pleased to know that all 5 teams from APU who performed astoundingly at the Big Data Week Hackathon, successfully advanced into the semi-finals; eventually, three teams were selected for the Grand Finals, and all three teams bagged awards that night!

Our champion team stood out among all participants with the project, Affinity Analysis and Prediction (AAP), which aims to reduce university drop-out rates by identifying students’ strengths and interests through data analytics. The team comprises Chin Koh Shian, Dickson Pang Yee Sheng, Hiew Ming An and Manigandran Ramanathan; they walked away with a cash prize of RM10,000.00.

In addition, two more projects from APU teams, WG - Movie Theatre Advertising System using Analytics by  Ng Wen Ge, and Superlon – Analytics System that reduces the risk of underweight babies by Khor Tze Hym, Lim Sing Shu, Ng Kok An, Lim Jin Xong and Ng Kok Wah, bagged the 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up awards of the Academic Track at the Big App Challenge 3.0 respectively.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to all three teams; good job and well done to their academic mentors, Dr. Kadhar Badhsa Nowshath, Mohd Najib, Dr. Raja Rajeswari and Dr. Ryan Ho Ming Kang for your efforts in guiding the teams towards their success. 

Language is not a barrier to do good deeds.

Recently, 30 students from APU joint hands with our staff members – Salasiah binti Sulaiman, Vinothini Kasinathan, Atiyah Hadi & Rizawati binti Rohizan to show their love and care towards children from the House of Joy, Limpahan Kasih Charity Home and Baitul Hidayah Welfare Home, who came to visit APU for a fun-filled event – the APU QR Community Game. The children, whose ages were from 6 years old to 14 years old, were mostly orphans.

At the beginning of the event, all APU students were assigned as “foster brothers and sisters” of the children, in which they were required to complete several challenges by exploring the APU Campus @ TPM, and scanning the QR codes to solve the puzzles. Despite the language barriers, age gap and cultural differences, our students managed to give the children a good time as they guided their “little brothers and litter sisters” throughout the game. In one of the groups, our Bhutan student managed to establish a lovely relationship with his 8-year-old brother, who does not understand English. Upon winning the 4th Place, he donated his RM40 book voucher to his “little brother”. All our students played together with the children, shared some hugs and lovely acts that warmed our hearts that day. All children walked away with goodie bags donated by our lecturers, as well as the brightest smiles.

Kudos to the team who organised this event, with the help from Ms. Aida Zamnah, Ms. Geetha Rubasundram and Prof. Dr. Ir. Vinesh Thiruchelvam for making this event a successful one. We look forward to contribute more towards the society, thus we look forward to seeing more events like this being organised in the future.

“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone”. – Dr. Loretta Scott

Here’s another good news to share!

Our students from the APU Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Technology (FCET) recently made their name at the first GreenTech Youth Innovation Challenge 2016, which was organised by GreenTech Malaysia, an organization under the purview of the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA), and Asia School of Business, in conjunction with the International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM) 2016.

Throughout the competition, our team of students, comprising Ngie Kok Sin, John Lim Hong Aun, Lee Jun On and Chan Kar Keng went through 5 stages of challenges, in which they were required to develop a prototype of a product that addresses the world’s environmental sustainability issues. Our students developed the “Intelligent Room System”, which made use of Arduino Nano, Motion & Light Sensors and Solid-state Relay to automate the switch of lights to save electricity.

Eventually, green technology is the future and we are glad that our students are exposed to it prior to their graduation. Congratulations to the team, who was mentored by Vickneswari Durairajah & Suresh Gobee, for this awesome achievement!