22nd January 2010

Press Release - Malta Internet Foundation 2010 Prize

The Malta Internet Foundation offers an annual prize that favours academic work making a significant contribution to Internet technologies. This year the aim is to address technologies which promote universal access to intelligent, socially-oriented web services.

Usage of the Internet continues to mushroom thanks to the global provision of high-speed data networks, the falling cost of mobile access, the mass appeal of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and the advent of cloud-computing services like Google docs. Yet intelligent web services remain elusive, even though they promise to herald a new era of web computing. Intelligent web services are those that might adapt dynamically to user needs, manage complex queries by interacting autonomously with other web servers, or solve problems by reasoning with the content of web pages, as suggested by proponents of the Semantic Web.

The prize in 2010 will be awarded to students submitting work describing or demonstrating systems that profit from use of the Internet and address a need that is particularly relevant to the Maltese context. In addition, submissions will be ranked according to the extent to which they employ advanced technologies to implement intelligent web services, and their potential social impact. The submission should clearly indicate how the work addresses all of these criteria.

The submission must have academic merit as reflected by an official assessment in the context of a recognised university degree course. The two categories of submission are (i) a final year project or (ii) assessed coursework that is a significant component of a course carrying at least 4 ECTS credits.

A cash prize of €600 will be offered for the best final year project. A second prize of €400 will be offered for best assessed coursework.

Eligibility

Students reading for a university degree who are resident in Malta.

Submission Procedure

A copy of the final year project report, or of the coursework, together with any software, as submitted towards the award of degree, should be submitted in softcopy on CD indicating clearly which category of submission is intended and contact details of the student, to: Malta Internet Foundation, c/o IT Services Reception Desk, University Campus, Msida MSD 2080

Deadlines

Deadline for Submission: 30th June 2010

Announcement of Winners: September 2010

Award of Prize: October 2010

Queries about this initiative should be addressed to info@nic.org.mt with subject line ‘2010 Prize’.

About the Malta Internet Foundation

The Malta Internet Foundation, also known as NIC(Malta), was officially inaugurated in January 1999 and is responsible for managing the .mt top-level domain for Malta. The mission of the Malta Internet Foundation also includes activities to promote use of the Internet in Malta. The Foundation was responsible for the setting up of the Malta Internet eXchange (MIX) to facilitate local IP traffic between local ISPs. Current activities also include supporting IPv6 and offering annual prizes for outstanding projects on Internet-related themes. The Foundation is a member of the Maltese IPv6 Task Force and, together with University of Malta, coordinates the Malta IPv6 national test-bed (M6ix).

Website: www.nic.org.mt

22nd January 2010