13th May 2010

Press Release - Malta Internet Foundation 2011 Prize

The Malta Internet Foundation offers an annual prize in support of academic work making a significant contribution to Internet technologies.

As previously announced, the 2010 prize concerns the theme of Intelligent Web Services, and has submission deadline 30th June, 2010. Further details can be seen at https://www.nic.org.mt/news.

The Foundation is pleased to announce the prize in 2011. This will be awarded to students submitting innovative work describing or demonstrating systems that profit from use of the Internet and address a need that is particularly relevant to the Maltese context. Submissions should address one or more of the following areas:

• Green ICT: includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. It is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently to contribute to improvement of the environment.

• Semantic Web: an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to "understand" and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content

• Mobile and Location Based Applications: mobile applications are those that can be deployed on a mobile phone, and location based applications are sensitive to the geospatial location in which they are used.

• IPv6: the next-generation Internet Protocol version designated as the successor to IPv4, the first implementation used in the Internet that is still in dominant use currently

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 i.e. 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 in any of the special areas. A second prize of €400 will be offered for best assessed coursework. Other prizes will also be offered.

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: 2011 Prize, Malta Internet Foundation, c/o IT Services Reception Desk, University Campus, Msida MSD 2080.

Deadlines

Deadline for Submission: 30th June 2011

Announcement of Winners: September 2011

Award of Prize: October 2011

Queries about this initiative should be addressed to info@nic.org.mt with subject line ‘2011 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

13th May 2010