(l to r) School of IT head Chit Su Mon, Korean Society Malaysia Vice Chairman Lee Tae Soo, Embassy of the Republic of Korea Deputy Chief of Mission Kim Jun Pyo, Team InCentric, Senior Professor Dato’ Dr Khalid Yusoff and Professor Dr Ooi Keng Boon

The panel of judges at the competition.

One of the teams preparing for their presentation.

(from left to right) Chit Su Mon and Professor Dr Ooi Keng Boon presenting a certificate of appreciation to Dr Samer Muthana Sarsam.

One of the teams pitching their business idea to the panel of judges.

The Business Idea Competition 2018 was initiated by Axissoft Corporation and UCSI University to create awareness among students and to promote exchange of creative ideas pertaining to E-learning applications by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The School of IT together with the IT Student Association (ITSA) were the organisers for this competition. Axissoft is a professional web player and media security corporation with world-class technology and was the main sponsor for this event.

The competition was open to all UCSI undergraduates. The registration took place from 11th to 18th June 2018. There were 41 teams registered from various programmes including Computing, Mobile Computing and Networking, Business Administration, Financial Economics, Logistics Management, Finance and Investment, Actuarial Science, Marketing, Pharmacy, Accounting and Business Information Systems.

A workshop was conducted by UCSI University’s School of Information Technology Lecturer, Dr Samer Muthana Sarsam on 19th June to assist the participants in generating business ideas especially within the scope of this competition’s theme - The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in E-Learning Applications. Out of 41 registered teams, 25 business idea submissions were received. The business ideas were then assessed and marked by all the lecturers from the School of IT.

Based on the score, the top five teams were selected to pitch their business ideas in front of judges in the final round on 10^th August. There was an outstanding panel of judges: Adv Fusionex Sdn Bhd Product and Solutions Senior Vice President Jacob Isaac, UCSI University’s School of Information Technology Lecturer, Dr Samer Muthana Sarsam, and the Director (ASEAN Regional Specialist) from Business Development Centre, UCSI Group, Han IL Kwang.

The contestants were very competitive and showed their professionalism during the competition. Fourth place was won by Famto (Ip Shing Kuen and Lim Khang Chern). Third place won by two teams Cognica (Kenneth Ooi Khang Sien and Yow Zhen Yeap) and Botcademy (Yeap Boon Kheng, Lam Wei Ming, Lee Yien Yuan and Leong Kok Kooi). Second place was won by iKid (Leong Yong Cai, Benedict Kiew Tze Yang, Chong Pei Qi and Wong Jin Man). The champion for The Business Idea Competition 2018 was InCentric (Harry Lean Fu Liang, Too Wing Ging, Michelle Yeong Wan Li and Jason Quek Ghee Khang). The champion brought home USD1250.

Alongside the Business Idea Competition 2018, there were two awards presented to the outstanding students who were excellent in both academic and extracurricular activities. There awards were the Academy Scholarship Award and the Book Prize Award, worth USD 1250 and USD500 respectively. Too Wing Ging from BSc (Hons) Computing received the Academy Scholarship Award. Michelle Yeong also from BSc (Hons) Computing received the Book Prize Award.