AWARD WINNER: Saifol Anwar Abdul Rahman, grand prize winner poses Mohd Fazlin at the prize-giving ceremony for the Geek-the-Genius application development contest.
KUCHING: Alcatel-Lucent Malaysia recently announced the winners of the Geek-the-Genius application development contest, the application development contest aimed at encouraging the creation of more local content on the Internet.
According to a press statement yesterday, “The Grand Prize of RM20,000 in cash was awarded to 28-year-old Saifol Anwar Abdul Rahman, a web developer, who created a game application which helps to teach common Malay expressions to children in a fun and interactive way.”
The app, named ‘Hang Tuah Selamatkan Bahasa Melayu’ (Hang Tuah Saves the Malay Language), impressed the panel of judges with its localised and educational content.
“Children of this age are exposed to different kind of games and applications, including adventure, sports and strategy games. Educational games are often seen as less attractive.
“The idea of this app is to break such perspective by providing an educational yet fun game – adventurous and interactive to engage the minds of the young ones,” Saifol Anwar said
Mohd Fazlin Shah Mohd Salleh, president and managing director of Alcatel-Lucent Malaysia, in his address to the winners, acknowledged the effort and creativity of the winners and urged them to continue creating more localised content for the next generation of internet-savvy Malaysians.
“The Geek-the-Genius contest served as a launch pad for Malaysians to showcase their creativity and talent in creating simple, yet interactive applications that appeal to children. We hope that this initiative will spur Malaysians to continue creating more localised and appealing content for the next generation of internet-savvy Malaysians,” Mohd Fazlin said.
Opened to all eligible Malaysians, the contest was held in an effort to encourage the creation of local edutainment content on the Internet. Over 100 registrations were received over the contest period of 12 weeks.
The applications submitted by participants were shortlisted and judged based on several criteria. These include creativity level, idea originality, level of educational content, user experience, and suitability and relevance to the target audience.
A total of 13 cash prizes were awarded, namely the grand prize of RM20,000; first runner up prize of RM12,000; second runner up prize of RM5,000; and ten consolation prizes worth RM700 each.