KUCHING – Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus students bagged the first prize of the SAS Malaysia programming quiz competition which was held at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam, recently.
Master of Science students Yakub Sebastian, Wendy Japutra Jap and Lai Chee Ping from the university took home the champion’s prize money of RM1,000 cash.
“We actually didn’t expect to win because it was a very tough competition,” said Wendy, an international student from Jakarta, Indonesia.
“It was a surprise but I’m very happy that we won,” added Lai.
“The other institutions (of higher learning) actually have the advantage because they have SAS subjects but we don’t,” said Yakub, who from Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
“We did however prepare quite seriously for the competition as the software is part of our research project. Entering the competition was a way of motivating ourselves,” he said with a laugh, adding that the competition was an invaluable academic experience.
Taking second place in the competition was the team from Sunway University College, while third spot went to the team from UiTM.
A total of 11 teams from four institutions of higher learning in the country battled it out for the top spot in a series of quizzes where the contestants were tested on their understanding of programming, with a focus on data management and the application of analysis tools for business computing.
The competition was organised by SAS Malaysia, a company that is engaged in business analytics software and services, as well as business intelligence market. The objective of the competition was to expose university students to the practical application of computing software.