NEWS: Mobile Masters

KBU International College walked away with the first prize in the Mobile Content Challenge (MCC) 2008.

The contest, jointly organised by Maxis Communications Bhd, the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM), awarded student teams from participating institutions of higher learning in Malaysia a total of RM100, 000 in cash prizes.

MCC 2008 is designed to encourage students to join the content developer community and foster innovation on mobile phones. It was launched in 2007.

For this year, there were four runner-up prizes of RM10,000 each, as well as a grand prize of RM60,000, awarded to the team whose application stood out for the overall Best Mobility Content submission.

The winning KBU team members (from left) Tang Shin Chze, Daniel Choy Cheng Keong and Goh Chin Wei bagged RM60,000.

Students with the most innovative content concepts will be offered the opportunity to prototype and commercially launch their winning applications with the assistance of Maxis’ panel of Malaysian content developers under its developer programme.

Team KBU from KBU International College won the grand prize for its 3G Mobile Community and Networking application. Its members were Daniel Choy Cheong Keong, Goh Chin Wei and Tang Shin Chze. Four other teams won prizes for the following categories: Mobile Commerce (Team V-1tix from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia); Mobile Entertainment (Art Mobile, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia); Mobile Education (BST, Universiti Sains Malaysia) and Mobile Info Base (Boderless, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor presented prizes to the winners. “The Mobile Content Challenge plays an important part in the overall national strategy to build up the next generation of mobile content developers, by giving them a viable infrastructure of support, incentives and guidance to successfully launch their ideas and creations in the commercial market,” said Shaziman at the ceremony.

MCC 2008 involved a series of roadshows to 65 institutions of higher learning and six workshops nationwide. “The second Mobile Content Challenge has seen participation nearly double to 185 concept submissions from student teams. We had in 2007,” said chairman of SKMM Datuk Dr Halim Shafie.

“The Mobile Content Challenge is a vital part of Maxis’ larger quest to build a vibrant ecosystem for mobile content in Malaysia. “We are pleased to incubate a ‘nursery’ of local content, conceived by smart young talent,” said Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das.

During the contest, teams were matched with industry mentors from the Maxis Developer Programme who guided them in all aspects of their submissions.

> Recently, KBU International College partnered YourPartTime.com in organising a soft skills seminar for all its final-year students as part of its efforts to enhance their employability.

The Soft Skills for Graduates Seminar featured topics such as ‘Look Good, Feel Good’, ‘Stand-Up and Sell’, ‘From Ideas to Execution’, ‘Resume-Write Right’ and ‘What Employers Want’.

In conjunction with the seminar, KBU signed an MoU with YourPartTime.com, an online service that provides job opportunities to those who wish to freelance or work part-time.