FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

$20,000 WORTH OF PRIZES GIVEN OUT IN FIRST EVER NATION-WIDE ACTIONSCRIPT AWARDS;

IDA FEATURES ENTRIES IN DIGITAL FUN MONTH TO HIGHLIGHT LOCAL TALENT

 

SINGAPORE - 11 MAY 2004 - Over 80 entries were received in the inaugural ActionScript Awards 2004 making it the biggest ever nationwide Flash competition in Singapore’s history. Organised and conceptualised by Republic Polytechnic, the ActionScript Awards were launched in January this year with the support of key leading players in the technology industry, namely, IBM, Macromedia, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems. IDA supported the ActionScript Awards as part of its focus in building capabilities in the sphere of Infocomm skills to meet the industry’s demand.

“Through this competition, the youths are given the opportunity to showcase their creativity and technical knowledge in Flash programming. We are pleased to support Republic Polytechnic’s initiative in bringing out the creativity and manifesting these skills,“ commented Mr Lo Yoong Khong, Deputy Director, Manpower Development, Industry, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

The winning entries were showcased at IDA’s Digital Fun Month event to promote the widespread adoption of digital art. This showcase has raised the profile of the competition and gave exposure to the participants.

Despite being in its first year, ActionScript Awards attracted 75% of its total entries from schools – from secondary to tertiary level. Particularly noteworthy is Soo Zhong Min, the fifteen year old 2^nd place winner in the Schools category from Junyuan Secondary School. His strong interest in programming began at twelve years of age when he started dabbling in Qbasic. Two years ago, he turned to Flash and rapidly developed his skills through his strong interest and experimentation.

The winner for the Open category, Mr Teo Boon Leng, a freelance designer and programmer, started with Flash 4. He has since won the Open category first prize at the PlanetMG digital games, a regional Flash games competition. An expert in Flash applications, Mr Teo hopes to keep on honing his skills at these competitions.

Said Mr Tay Kheng Tiong, Director of Republic Polytechnic’s School of IT, “We are very pleased with the standard of entries received – it reflects a growing level of sophistication and interest in Flash programming that will serve Singapore well as we progress to being the multimedia hub of the region.”

The first of its kind in the region, the ActionScript Awards is an annual event which aims to target both the school and public entries. Entries are judged upon four criteria: creativity, technical knowledge, interactivity, originality. The panel of four judges are all illustrious members of the open source community. One of them is Tatsuo Kato, a web developer as well as a designer of e-learning systems for the US Navy. Also, a member of Team Macromedia, Mr Kato noted that it was a ‘great contest’ and that “there were even ones good enough for [him] to forget that [he] was judging!”

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For more information, please contact:

Lim Le-Anne

Office of Corporate Communications

DID: 6376 8012

Email: lim_le_anne@rp.edu.sg