Thursday, July 03, 2008

Well done IIUM!

I am proud of the two IIUM ICT teams which won first and second prizes at the ACM-ICPC Malaysia al-Khawārizmī National Programming Contest 2008 (al-Khawārizmī-08) beating Monash University and 21 other teams. I was invited to their closing and prize giving ceremony and although I knew next to nothing about programming, the whole contest looked very exciting.I was also told that IIUM got to host the regional contest in Dec (competing against world's best programmers cos' Malaysia is in the same league as those in China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore..kalau kalah pun tak malu) and world event in 2011.Well done IIUM and Malaysia! (it's not easy to bid to host world events and we did it).

If we do well, tak perlu kita advertise for students to study here...people will berebut2 nak masuk!

But I was comparing my arty crafty world with this new world. My world is often noisy and unruly especially in majlis-majlis anugerah like this.Budak-budak ni menang, muka selamba.I asked S..why ah? Aren't they happy they won?

S: "nerdy world"

They didn't look nerdy tapi selamba.I thought of the TV reality show Beauty and the Geek.
Nahhh..our kids look more natural, cuma expression kurang.If you are happy, clap your hands! :)

Whatever it is, I had fun talking with S and other ICT staff at the do.

The good old Tengku who officiated the event didn't age one bit -- in fact he looked younger than when he was CEO of MIMOS. I was wondering apa petua awet muda he amalkan. Maybe a good heart.Literally.

He spoke of how al-Khawārizmī became an inventor...he was trying to calculate the distribution of faraih and had to find a mathematical solution (and became father of algebra etc).Tengku was saying we need to create things to solve problems (instead of becoming lifelong consumers..ini I tambah)

More about him here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_M%C5%ABs%C4%81_al-Khw%C4%81rizm%C4%AB

3 comments:

Pishaposh said...

"If we do well, tak perlu kita advertise for students to study here...people will berebut2 nak masuk!"

Dan, atas sebab doing well itulah, bila interviewer putuskan saya tak boleh buat law dan tukarkan terus saya ke IRK sedangkan saya tak tahu apa pun IRK tu ... saya menerimanya dek terlalu mahu belajar di UIA tu ... Really missed the good ol days ...

Faridah said...

Thanks Fisha for your vote of confidence.I hope you will write for REACH of your fond memories of us? REACH is our Alumni mag.We welcome articles of any kind (but maybe not on sodomy).Pls email the editor at zabeda@iiu.edu.my.

I think the next issue is on world peace.Then Issue no. 14 is on human capital.

Our IRK students are doing well (ramai juga yang masuk Foreign Service I hear)

I plan to do IRK courses too when I go on my sabbatical (soon I hope!)

Pishaposh said...

Ingatkan dah tak wujud dah Reach ni ... Last copy yg I dapat was 10th Issue ... pastu alumni dept dah tak hantar2 lagi dah ... :(