Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (DSE) competition still goes on. This year the ASEAN foundation hosted their virtual national finals.
According to New Straits Times, the winners Oscar Fang Jack Ling and Quah Chun Meng are Malaysians that attend Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and their team, Psyduck, mainly focused on digital integration.
The runners up Mohd Fahad Saleem and Viknesa Vetrivelan hail from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Imperium International College while the second runners-up, Nikola Adiprasetya and How Jo Yi are from Sunway University and Monash University Malaysia.
Despite being in the midst of a pandemic, ASEAN DSE still manages to capture the interest of the youth and keeps at its goal to equip the youth with essential digital skills.
852 students across the Malaysian region competed to represent their country in the National Finals, according to Tech Barrista.
The top 3 winners were judged based on their ability to design a concept driven by data insights that tackles ASEAN socio-economic issues. Some of the judging criteria include the participants creativity, innovation and demonstration of the concept.
As the grand winner, Team Psyduck from UTM will represent Malaysia in the ASEAN DSE 2020’s Regional Finals this November.
"ASEAN will get stronger through advanced data science technology," according to the Malaysian director of Institutions at the Higher Education Excellence Research Division, Prof Datuk Dr Muhammad Fauzi Mohd Zain.
Meanwhile, software company SAP's Malaysian managing director, KC Hong, says that "digital skills are more relevant now in the middle of our current pandemic situation and as we look towards recovery, and we are pleased to see that youths in ASEAN can make a difference in that goal and improve people's lives".
The National Finals were also streamed live on Facebook, attracting more than 630 viewers.
Follow Mashable SEA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Cover image sourced from TechBarrista
