MMU, Taylor's University Win Business Plan Competition

KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 (Bernama) -- The Multimedia University (MMU) and Taylor's University emerged champions in the Business Plan and Business Idea categories respectively of the MSC Malaysia-IHL Business Plan competition held here Tuesday.

The MMU won RM10,000 through their project called Typo Auto Corrector (TAC) which provides spelling checker and auto correction to all applications on the MS-Windows platform.

Second place went to UCSI University while KDU College finished third.

Taylor's University's victory in the Business Idea segment earned them RM7,000, with their project "Guide Me" -- a device to assist visually-impaired persons in moving around and estimating distance.

KDU College and the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) took the second and third places respectively.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin presented the prizes in the competiton organised by the Multimedia Super Corridor's (MSC) Malaysia Technopreneur and Enterprise Development (TED) Division.

Speaking at the function, Mohamed Khaled said the competition was a platform for students to harness their potentials in entrepreneurship especially in Information Communication Technology (ICT).

"It also provides a ground for students to indulge in, explore and be part of a lot interesting hands-on experiences which could allow them to think beyond the classroom set-up and work on real world problems," he said.

-- BERNAMA

MMU's TAC Champions of Business Plan Competition
24 March 2011
by Hefni Izzat
The MMU student team TAC emerged as Champions in the MSC Malaysia-IHL Business Plan Competition (MIBPC) 2010/2011. Chong Yen Jye and Khong Wai Howe from FIT, together with Nicholas Koay Zhen Lin from FOM won the Business Plan category with their Typo Auto Corrector (TAC) software.

They took home a cash prize of RM10,000, winner trophy, winner certificate, and challenge trophy for emerging Champions, beating competitors from UCSI University and KDU College.

The prize was presented to TAC by the Minister of Higher Education, Dato' Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, during the award presentation ceremony held in Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 22 March 2011.

As the Champion of the Business Plan category, TAC will take part in the MSC Malaysia APICTA Awards 2011 under the Best of Tertiary Student Project or Best of R&D Project categories. In addition, TAC was offered a full scholarship to attend the ASEAN Youth Forum on Innovation and Creativity 2011 in Labuan.

TAC functions as a spell checker and auto corrector for text in all applications on the MS-Windows platform, a feature usually limited to word processors.

Teams from MMU have been making headway in this competition for the past three years. In 2009/2010, MMU was First Runner Up in the Business Plan category; in 2008/2009 MMU’s team made it to the final Top Ten; and in 2007/2008, MMU emerged as Winner in the Business Idea Category.

"We hope that TAC’s victory will inspire other MMU students to apply their knowledge in other competitions. If you see any of these guys around, give them a pat on the back, congratulate them and thank them for making us proud!" quips an official from MMU who prefers to remain unnamed.