Malaysia to host 24-hour mobile app contest

CYBERJAYA: Malaysia will host a 24-hour mobile applications development competition known as Malaysia Developers' Day (MDD).

The event, the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, is jointly organised by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and American multinational telecommunications corporation, AT&T Global.

The two-day event will be held on Sept 7 at the Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

"The competition is open to students, application developers, innovators, non-developers and any individual with an idea but do not know how to materialise and commercialise it," said MCMC broadband management division head Nor Akmar Shah Minan.

She said the competition was also a networking opportunity for the various stakeholders as it provided access to experts from the United States as well as the latest mobile technology.

Nor Akmar said through the competition, MCMC and AT&T hoped to unearth mobile application's talent in Malaysia, while playing the role as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship.

"MCMC sees this as an opportunity for local application designers to showcase their talent and compete with the rest of the world."

She said MCMC's collaboration with AT&T would provide local talent an opportunity to master mobile application programming interface software as well as be mentored by local experts and those from AT&T.

The competition will kick-off at 9am on Sept 7 and will see participants briefed by AT&T's technical engineers and local mentors, who will provide technical support, advice and guidance on coding and programming of an application.

Participants will pitch their ideas, form teams and start programming at 2pm until 2pm the next day.

Since its a 24-hour session, participants will code and finalise the creation of their application and in the duration can choose to stay over and programme the application.

If the participants choose not to stay for the 24-hour duration, they may not be able to access AT&T's development environment (network). There will be a free flow of refreshments during the 24-hour period.

Judging will start at 4.30pm and winners will be announced at 5pm.