APU Students Win PIKOM’s APICTA Malaysia Awards 2019

Engineering students from Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU)’s emerged as the winner of the MSC – Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (MSC-APICTA) Malaysia 2019 award – “Tertiary Students Category” held earlier this month.

The team comprised Mohamed Mafaz Mohamed Ahsan and Akshey Kumar Magenthiran who were third year Electrical & Electronic Engineering and Telecommunication Engineering students respectively. The duo bagged APU’s 19^th APICTA award as students from the university have been attaining awards on the APICTA Malaysia stage since 1999.

The MSC-APICTA Malaysia award aims to recognize innovative ICT products, solutions, services and applications within Malaysia. Subsequently, an International APICTA takes place annually in all of APICTA’s member economies, namely Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The APICTA Awards gained prestige among all ICT industry leaders and it is also known as the “Oscars of the ICT industry”.

This year, the International APICTA will take place in Halong, Vietnam from 18 to 23 November. Both Mohamed Ahsan and Akshey Kumar will be bringing their project to Vietnam, representing Malaysia at the International APICTA arena. As Engineering students, the duo made us of their expertise to develop a fully-functional low cost and portable cancer detector, which allows users to detect harmful radiation in the environment.

APU Winners on the stage of the APICTA Awards 2019 Ceremony — Members of the winning team (2^nd from left: Akshey Kumar, Middle: Mohamed Mafaz Mohamed Ahsan) from the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) with their mentors and the Head of School of Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thang Ka Fei (right), Deputy Vice Chancellor cum Chief Innovation Officer of APU, Prof. Dr. Ir. Vinesh Thiruchelvam (2^nd from right), team mentor, Dr. Fretty Tan Kheng Suan (left) on the stage of the APICTA Awards 2019 Ceremony.

The team was mentored by Dr. Freddy Tan Kheng Suan from APU’s School of Engineering.

“I am really proud of their achievement. The team is creative, excellent and possesses outstanding technical skills; I’m also glad that their soft skills enabled them to deliver their ideas to the academic and industrial experts confidently. I wish they keep up the passion and I believe they will definitely make a difference in the world.”
Recalling their success, Dr. Freddy Tan Suan shared.

“Becoming an engineer is my passion. I felt extremely ecstatic to achieve this award. It’s finally a dream come true! This victory is not achieved through magic but through hardwork, determination and sacrifice,”
Expressed Mohamed Ahsan Mohamed Mafaz, who was a part of the duo from APU to attain the APICTA Award.