Ma’had Islam Brunei students, with their product ‘Mr Grabbish’, was announced the winner for the primary school categories of the Brunei Info-Communications Technology Awards (BICTA) 2023 at the Arts Centre of Jerudong International School yesterday.
Six participating primary schools – Ma’had Islam Brunei with its product ‘Brugency’, Amar Pahlawan Primary School with ‘BNRhythm’, Seri Mulia Sarjana International School with ‘Smart Energy Sensing System’, Sungai Tali Primary School, Lumut 2 with ‘Portable Solar Tracker’ and Rimba III Primary School with ‘Educational Game on Save Our Earth’ received the Merit awards.
In the secondary school category, students from Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College took the top spot with their product Berasap.
Sayyidina Ali Secondary School, Kuala Belait’s ‘Mr Bin’ and Chung Hwa Middle School, Bandar Seri Begawan’s ‘TenangMind’ received the Merit Awards.
‘Project Real-Time Remote Water Quality Monitoring in Relation to Flood and Drought in Brunei Darussalam’ by Universiti Teknologi Brunei came in top spot in the tertiary category, while CareerBN by Universiti Brunei Darussalam received the Merit Award.
The IT Protective Security Services Sdn Bhd (ITPSS), with its product ‘iDentiti’, was announced the winner in the research and development category and ‘Alquatic Tech’ by ODE Aquaculture and Agriculture Company received the Merit Award.
Meanwhile, participants representing NiAT Sdn Bhd with its product ‘MataGrid powered by OBSERVE’ won the consumer and business category.
The competition also presented the Smart Nation awards to a non-winning entry, that had fulfilled Brunei’s vision of digital transformation within the applications of the five specific sectors – tourism, agriculture, construction, logistics and transport, and education.
The Smart Nation award under agriculture was presented to Rumine Corporation with its product ‘Agronect’.
Minister of Transport and Infocommunications Pengiran Dato Seri Setia Shamhary bin Pengiran Dato Paduka Haji Mustapha, the guest of honour, presented the prizes to the winners as well as merit and Smart Nation awardees.
This year’s winners will represent the Sultanate in the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) 2023 Awards, a prestigious international ICT competition participated by 16 member economies from the Asia-Pacific region, to be held in Hong Kong this year.
Brunei has won four awards and received 29 merits since its first participation in 2008.
The minister also presented tokens of appreciation to 41 judges and toured the products’ showcase by BICTA 2023 winners and Merit recipients.
Prior to the prize presentation, a BICTA judges’ report was delivered by BICTA 2023’s chief judge Pengiran Sarimah binti Pengiran Haji Abdul Latiff, who said this year’s participation showed promise, taking into account the introduction of new categories. On the judging system, Pengiran Sarimah said it was based on the standards set by the APICTA Awards competition with criteria including uniqueness, proof of concept, market potentials, application of technologies, functionalities and features, quality and presentation.
BICTA is an annual ICT competition organised by the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications in collaboration with the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI) and InfoCom Federation Brunei (IFB).
Themed ‘Smart Nation through Digital Transformation’, the competition was opened to individuals, students, businesses, government agencies and interested organisations on April 6.
These were 10 categories, seven of which were main categories – primary school, secondary school, tertiary school, consumer and business services, inclusion and community services, industrial and public and government – while start-up, research and development and technology categories made up the rest.
The competition, aims to stimulate innovation and creativity in ICT among individuals, students, local enterprises, government and private organisations, supported by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Darussalam Enterprise (DARe). – Rokiah Mahmud
