UTAR celebrated another win at the Huawei ICT Competition when a team of three students won Champion in the Cloud Track category, organised by Huawei, on 24 November 2022 at Parkroyal Collection Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

The team consisted of Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Mechatronics Engineering student Ho Wei Liang, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Electronics student Tay Bee Sim, and Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) student Yong Hong Long. They each received a Huawei MateBook D14 and a certificate of achievement; as a team, they also received the champion’s trophy. The team was led by Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES) academic Ir Ts Dr Tham Mau Luen, who also received a Huawei MateBook D14.

Ho enthused, “I would like to thank UTAR and Dr Tham for providing me with a good academic background and allowing me to develop my potential in this national-level competition. I would highly recommend my UTAR juniors participate in this competition next year to explore more, especially the modern cloud and network technologies. Huawei ICT Competition is the right place for training students to adapt and prepare for Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). We are truly honoured to win this champion title and represent the Malaysia team to compete at the international level next year. We will do our best.” He also won third place in the individual preliminary round.

Tay expressed, “UTAR has given opportunities to students to participate in the Huawei ICT Academy to extend our knowledge. It also provides students vouchers to sit for the Huawei certification exam. I knew about this academy in 2021 and I decided to join the classes to extend my knowledge in IP and IT fields. Therefore, being crowned the champion in the Cloud Track was very exciting. I participated in the competition because I wanted to enhance my ICT knowledge and practical skills, as well as to experience competing in a global competition. I believe it was our effort in studying the courses provided by the Huawei ICT Academy that helped us win in that track, and we successfully obtained the highest average score.”

Yong also commented, “I would like to thank Dr Shee Yu Gang for exposing me to this competition, and Ir Ts Dr Tham Mau Luen for supporting me throughout this journey. Besides winning the competition, I have successfully obtained HCIA and HCIP certifications in the AI category, which not only showed as my personal achievements but most importantly boosted my knowledge in the AI field. I thank Huawei for setting up this competition and learning platform for us to unleash our potential and enhance our ICT knowledge. I hope our team could excel in the upcoming regional final stage where we will represent Malaysia and UTAR to compete with other countries from the Asia Pacific region. My passion for ICT is the key factor to drive me until this stage, plus, I hope to boost my resume by gaining extracurricular records. Winning this competition is an utmost surprise as I never thought I would reach this far; I am extremely happy with it. I suppose that with the right time, right place, and right person, turning a participation record into a champion title is not a dream anymore.”

He also added, “As a Computer Science major student, I think UTAR’s Computer Science curriculum has provided me with a strong foundation to easily understand Huawei’s learning materials. Besides the easiness, this solid foundation also enabled me to grasp the knowledge from the materials more thoroughly instead of memorising them blindly. The ICT field is ever-changing and one could never expect a university syllabus to cover all knowledge. Tertiary education should only be deemed as the cornerstone of one’s growth, and I think UTAR did a good job of providing quality and affordable education. I would also like to thank my academic advisor and FYP supervisor, Ts Dr Tan Hung Khoon for his continuous guidance throughout my university years.”

Dr Tham complimented the team and said, “I am proud of my team’s achievement. It is not easy as the cloud track requires all students to acquire the knowledge of five domains ranging from cloud computing to cloud service, storage, big data and artificial intelligence. They demonstrated their enthusiasm to learn these disruptive technologies through the Huawei e-learning platform. I believe that the ICT competition serves as a great platform for students to showcase their talents and hands-on skills.”

The team participated in the Practice Competition sub-category, which includes the Network Track and Cloud Track. It examines students’ theoretical knowledge and hands-on ICT skills, as well as their abilities to work in teams. Participants were ranked according to their scores for theoretical and lab exams.

Additionally, UTAR was awarded the “Top 5 Active Huawei ICT Academies Award”. LKC FES Master of Engineering (Electrical) Programme Head Assoc Prof Dr Shee Yu Gang explained, “The ‘Top 5 Active Huawei ICT Academies Award’ is awarded to universities that have the greatest number of students actively learning in the Huawei online learning platform, which was established under the Huawei ICT Academy. This indicates that the University is working actively to encourage and nurture its students to learn the latest ICT technologies. This is definitely a value-added achievement for them before they join the ICT industries. We are working towards increasing the number of students to pass their certification exams provided by Huawei. Under the support of Huawei, students are eligible to learn the following programmes: Huawei Certified ICT Associate (HCIA) - Datacom, Security, WLAN, AI, 5G, Transmission, IoT, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Data Centre, and many others.”

The Huawei ICT Competition is intended for students in Huawei ICT academies and those in higher education institutions that are willing to join the ICT Academy worldwide. Through this competition, Huawei aims to provide students with a platform to compete healthily and exchange ideas, thus enhancing their ICT knowledge and practical skills as well as increasing their ability to innovate by using new technologies and platforms. With the theme Connection, Glory, Future, the Huawei ICT Competition will gather governments, higher educational institutions, training institutions, and industry enterprises to promote the cultivation, growth, and employment of ICT young professionals from universities and colleges, helping the ICT talent ecosystem thrive. Since the first edition in 2015, the Huawei ICT Competition’s influence has only kept growing. The 6th Huawei ICT Competition is currently underway, and it has attracted 150,000 students from over 2,000 universities and colleges across 85 countries and regions.