Sunday, August 5, 2007, by Joanna Ripard
Maltese students compete in Microsoft competition in
South Korea
Four third-year B.Sc. (Hons) IT students specialising in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAI)
stream, yesterday left Malta for Seoul, South Korea, to compete in Microsoft's fifth annual Imagine Cup
competition this week.
Karl Fenech, Abigail Cauchi, Jennifer Fenech and Luana Micallef, who make up the Kablujen Digerati team, will
compete against student teams from 50 other countries with their project 'KIKI'.
The team's participation is supported by Microsoft's Malta team and the Ministry for IT and Industry (MITI).
The theme for the Imagine Cup this year is education, and Microsoft has challenged participants to "imagine a
world where technology enables a better education for all". They will compete for cash prizes totalling over
$170,000, besides having the chance to be noticed by Microsoft's most influential key executives - which the
Maltese team have already succeeded in doing.
KIKI - which stands for "Key to the Integration of Knowledge and Innovation" - is a fully integrated, simple, but
highly adaptable system that allows teachers to make lessons in subjects such as Maths or English more
interactive and fun. The students designed the system using, among others, Microsoft's recently-developed
MultiPoint program that allows several mice to be used simultaneously on the same PC. In all its applications, the
system features teacher and student login using virtual cards, real-time progress tracking, and inter-computer
communication.
The students, aged 20 to 21, explained: "In our system, a central authority like the Education Ministry would
maintain a repository to which state-commissioned or commercial developers may upload applications and
content. Such applications (which may range from educational games, animated tutorials, homework exercises,
and tools like dictionaries) would be seamlessly incorporated into the system and immediately made available
within all classrooms for use by teachers and students."
A group of pupils at Zurrieq Primary School recently tried out KIKI's applications with great enthusiasm - much to
their teacher's and the team's delight.
Kablujen Digerati go to Seoul after KIKI placed first in the East Mediterranean regional Imagine Cup competition,
beating off teams from Cyprus, Jordan and Lebanon. It was the University of Malta's second consecutive regional
Imagine Cup win; last year's team went on to compete in the India finals.
Meanwhile, KIKI has also impressed Microsoft executives, who have shown interest in the project. The team
members have also been offered internships at Microsoft India where the MultiPoint program was developed.
They intend to take up the placements after completing their theses in August next year.
Their tutor, Dr John Abela, is the liaison officer between the Department of Computer Science and AI, Microsoft,
and MITI. He told The Sunday Times last week how he was approached by Microsoft Middle East three years
ago about the Imagine Cup competition. A team from the University has been competing in the Imagine Cup for
the past three years, after having won the local competition, beating teams from MCAST every year since.
"We made a decision at departmental level to encourage students (in groups) to compete in the Imagine Cup,"
said Dr Abela, who is responsible for organising, supervising, and co-ordinating the Imagine Cup competition
within his department. "This year we had seven groups. I then picked the 'winning group' and this group has now
made it to the world finals. This year I had the idea of creating a MultiPoint application and four of the seven
competing groups, including the winning group, chose to develop a MultiPoint application."
Kablujen Digerati is made up of four remarkably talented young people who undoubtedly have bright futures
ahead of them. One of the students, Luana Micallef, is currently on a scholarship in Switzerland and is travelling
to Seoul separately.
From the outset, Dr Abela had "great hopes" for their project, which uses MultiPoint as an 'enabling' technology.
KIKI is widely adaptable to a variety of scenarios, languages and age groups and the sky is the limit as far as its
potential is concerned. It is so versatile, it could be hugely beneficial to children in the Third World.
"It enables children all over the world, in particular in developing countries, to access and share a common PC
and to have a common learning experience," Dr Abela pointed out.
"Instead of one student using the mouse and keyboard and the others looking on and progressively becoming
bored and losing interest, all the students sitting around a PC can participate. It appears that Microsoft shares my
enthusiasm for this project."