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.
Theme for 2010
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.
Submission Categories
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:
- Final year project
- Assessed coursework (a significant component of a course carrying at least 4 ECTS credits)
Prizes
- €600 for the best final year project
- €400 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'.