Malaysian Universities Emerge Winners in CIMB 3D Conquest

The inaugural CIMB 3D Conquest has come to a close and the regional champions have been crowned! Team Mamade and Team Jake from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and University of Reading Malaysia emerged winners in the Coding Track and Fintech track respectively. The Data Science Track saw Team Jet Et Al, a Thai team made up of students from three different universities take home the gold. Team Jet Et Al were also winners from the Singapore In-Country competition.

CIMB Group CEO Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and CIMB Group Chief People Officer Dato’ Hamidah Naziadin were on hand to present the awards to the winners.

The inaugural competition which promises a second edition later this year saw over 2,500 participants from 200 universities across ASEAN. From there, the number was narrowed down to 213 teams from seven countries competing in the in-country finals held in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in December 2018. The regional finals saw 33 teams from all over ASEAN compete for the regional crown.

A total cash prize of USD 8,000 and an educational trip to Silicon Valley awaited the first placed teams while the second and third placed teams would bring home USD 5,000 and USD 3,000 respectively.

The ceremony was officiated by Dato’ Hamidah who begun the evening’s agenda by delivering the welcoming address followed by a speech delivered by Dato’ Sri Zafrul Aziz. Dato’ Ng Wan Peng, Chief Operating Officer at Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), partner of the 3D Conquest, later took the stage to welcome and congratulate the participants for coming this far.

Dato’ Hamidah was also quick to thank partners Malaysia Airlines, aws, Cloudera, Fusionex, Oracle and Sas. “My heartiest congratulations to all our winners from across ASEAN and we look forward to welcoming you to the CIMB family” she said joyously.

The 24-hour challenge saw teams having to come up with solutions for the given problems and later present their findings and conclusions in front of a panel of judges earlier in the day.

The finalists, regardless of whether they landed a placing in the Conquest would be offered employment opportunities with CIMB upon graduation.

“In the corporate space, companies are seeking to harness this new technology to reach higher levels of efficiency, expand to new markets and compete in new products.”

“The impact of the fourth industrial revolution will be felt in every industry and banking is no exception. So, at CIMB we have been investing heavily in technology, in multiple areas such as product offering, data security, data analytics, HR management and operations management.” Exclaimed the CIMB Group CEO.

In an exclusive interview with GRADUAN, Avienesh of Team Jake believed that taking home the prize was very important for the name of the University of Reading Malaysia.

“Our university is very new (opened in 2015) and winning this is a big thing because we feel that we are actually contributing to making a legacy for our University so it feels nice being the pioneer batch and getting the chance to share our university name on an international stage” beamed the young winner.

Members of Team Jake were quick to credit each other for their success as the team of students reminisced on two whole sleepless nights working together for the success of the tournament.

When asked what they will do with their cash prize Avienesh quickly put to rest any plans of partying by saying “Before we can think about what to do with the money we need to get home and get our books out because we’ve got exams next week” to the amusement of the rest of the team.

The CIMB 3D Conquest is supported by The Ministry of Education, MDEC and Disruptive Tech Asean. GRADUAN proudly supports the CIMB 3D Conquest and we’re excited to see what surprises the next edition with bring!