UTB won several awards at the Brunei Info-Communication Technology Awards (BICTA) 2022 held at the Chancellor Hall of UBD.
Presenting the awards to the winners was His Royal Highness Prince (Dr.) Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah ibni His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, as the Royal Patron of BICTA.
The awards received include First Runner-up and Second Runner-up under the Tertiary Category; and three Special Awards under the ICT Industry Category: Big Data Analytics Technology, Internet of Things (IoT) Technology, and Start-Up.
Under the Tertiary Category, the Smart Paddy Irrigation System project won the First Runner-up, the project members include Mohamad Zuhair Arif bin Shahrum, BSc. (Hons) in Computer Network and Security; Mohamad Naqiuddin bin Haji Awang Rambli BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering; and Muhd Safwan bin Ahman, Research Assistant for Centre for Innovative Engineering (CIE). The project focuses on paddy farming where it looks at the ideal water irrigation for optimal paddy growth. The prototype provides crucial information of water availability in the reservoir and ensures that it is maintained at an acceptable range for optimum paddy growth. The project is aimed for farmers and the public who wishes to start growing paddy crops.
Also, under the Tertiary Catgory, the Smart Waste Bin System with Beacon Technology project won the Second Runner-up by Muhammad Fauzan bin Haji Salleh, BSc. (Hons) in Computer Network and Security. This project improves the efficiency of garbage collection for parks, school areas or housings. It provides monitoring and alerts to ensure the efficiency of garbage collection. For example, once the threshold is reached, the system will send an alert message to the respective collector for collection. It will also provide dashboard for live monitoring of all the bins. Automatic opening and closing for hygienic purpose is also another feature of the project.
Meanwhile under the ICT Industry Category, three UTB projects won Special Awards. The Special Awards were for Big Data Analytics Technology, Internet of Things (IoT) Technology, and Start-Up.
The Road Accident Data Enhancement and Development (RADED) won the Big Data Analytics Technology Special Award owned by the Centre for Transport Research (CfTR). This project was a collaboration between UTB and the Land Transport Department, Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications, Brunei Darussalam. RADED is an integrated and centralised national Road Traffic Accident (RTA) database system that enhances RTA data collection. Mobile computer tablets with a new purpose-built app have also been introduced to enable on-site recording of RTA information by Royal Brunei Police Force.
Receiving the Internet of Things (IOT) Technology Special Award was the project entitled LoRa Base Relay. The project members were PhD students in Management and Information Security, Siti Aisah binti Janaji and Md. Hanif bin Jumat respectively. Their project prototype enables long range communication between two devices. This system allows these devices to communicate without the needs of wired network. It aims to reduce the cost of IoT deployment.
Wan Syiffawiaam Alya’a Farhah binti Zulkiflee, student undertaking BSc. (Hons) in Computing with Data Analytics, won the Start-Up Special Award for her project Thryffy by Thryffy Technologies. It is a Consumer-to-Consumer Fashion Marketplace App for both new and second-hand clothing.
Furthermore, the winner of the ICT Industry Category winning first place was one of UTB’s graduate, who is currently working as a System Analyst at E-Government National Centre, Mohammad Eswady bin Brahim previously undertaking BSc. (Hons) in Computing at the University. He is currently assigned to the Ministry of Health Brunei Darussalam's Healthcare Technology Department heading the BruHealth system and is currently assisting in the management of numerous Bru Health-related projects.
BICTA is an annual ICT competition co-organised by the Ministry of Transport and Infocommunications (MTIC), the Authority for Info-Communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam (AITI), and InfoCom Federation Brunei (IFB). The theme of this year's BICTA is 'Smart Nation Through Digital Transformation,' emphasising the importance of innovation in achieving Brunei's Vision 2035.
