11th November 2013

Award of Malta Internet Foundation 2013 Prize

The Foundation is pleased to announce that the winners of the Malta Internet Foundation prize for 2013 were Mr Colin Cachia and Mr Julian Zammit, both former students of the Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, University of Malta, reading for the MSc (ICT) and the BSc (Hons) ICT respectively.

Colin Cachia’s submission, entitled "Smart Mobile Technologies for Wandering Patients with Dementia", won the prize in the category "Masters Dissertation". Dementia patients often engage in physical wandering, and the aim of this work is to reduce the burden associated with caring for such patients who risk the potentially harmful consequences of such wandering. The key contribution is an algorithm that automatically detects abnormal wandering patterns, thus alerting the carer in good time. The system is implemented using smart mobile technology which minimise impact on the everyday activities of both carers and patients.

Julian Zammit’s submission, entitled "Traffic Congestion Avoidance: An Approach Inspired by Swarm Intelligence" won the prize in the category "Final Year Project". It deals with the well-known problem of avoiding congested roads. The solution is based on gps-equipped devices placed in the user’s vehicle which transmit position information continuously to a central server. An algorithm was developed that uses this information to identify congested roads and (using swarm intelligence) to recommend alternative routes to those in or approaching areas of congestion.

The prizes were awarded for innovative work describing or demonstrating a mobile and location-based application that profits from use of the Internet and addresses a need that is particularly relevant to the Maltese context.

Prof. Josef Lauri (centre) presented awards to Mr Julian Zammit (left) and Mr Colin Cachia

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.

Website: www.nic.org.mt

11th November 2013