KUCHING – Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus proudly announces the remarkable achievements of its academics from the School of Information and Communication Technologies, Ts Dr Miko Chang May Lee and Ts Dr Vong Wan Tze, in clinching victory at the Alan Turing Institute’s global data challenge.
The global data challenge, organised by Dr Oman Guerrero, Head of Computational Social Science in the institute’s Public Policy Programme, attracted participants from around the world. Teams were to tackle challenges using open spending data, development indicators and a newly released web-based modelling app from the Policy Priority Inference research programme.
The Swinburne academics, including a third team member representing the industry, Ryan Chua, emerged as grand champions out of the 25 finalist teams representing 20 countries. Their victory followed a rigorous judging by esteemed panellists from industry and subject experts.
As global champions, Dr Chang and Dr Vong earned a fully sponsored trip to visit The Alan Turing Institute’s office in London. During their visit from 16 to 24 March recently, they also participated in and presented their work at AI UK 2024, the UK’s annual national showcase on data science, and artificial intelligence research and innovation.
“There’s a real sense of triumph here at Swinburne Sarawak,” shared Professor Patrick Then Hang Hui, Head of the School of Information and Communication Technologies. “Our academics have truly excelled in this global data challenge; it is a clear testament to their outstanding skills and unwavering dedication. This victory not only boosts Swinburne’s reputation but also establishes the university as a frontrunner in the realm of data science and advanced analytics, he added.
“It was an invaluable experience where I learned that to progress further, one must stand on the shoulders of giants, as beautifully put by Newton – in this instance, it is Turing,” adds Dr Miko Chang.
“Discovering that the Turing Way is open source adds another layer of appreciation for the ethos of collaboration and shared knowledge within the AI research community,” she added.
The Alan Turing Institute, headquartered in the British Library in London, was established as the national institute for data science in 2015. In 2017, it added artificial intelligence to its remit at the recommendation of the British government. The institute was named after Alan Turing (1912 – 1954), whose work in theoretical and applied mathematics, engineering and computing are considered key disciplines in the field of data science and atticful intelligence.
Swinburne is an Australian university based in Melbourne, Australia. Ranked among the Top 1% of universities globally in the QS World University Rankings 2024 and the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), its branch campus – Swinburne Sarawak, is recognised as one of Malaysia’s top 10 Preferred Private Universities by JobStreet.com.
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