Two student projects on information and communications technology recently won the Asia Pacific ICT Awards.

After scooping the Best Digital Inclusion (Service Stream) Silver Award at this year’s Hong Kong ICT Awards, the service-learning project, “A mobile computer centre: A lab in suitcase on a Tuktuk” (left on photo), bagged the Merit award at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (Inclusion and Community Category). The award was given in recognition of the project’s contribution in providing students in Cambodia and Rwanda with an e-learning platform beyond geographic boundaries. Operated in solar power, the mobile suitcase contained a server with eLearning resources, batteries and mobile devices that power the wireless router to facilitate teaching in remote areas without power supply. Video>>

Another project, “Umbrella Here” (right on photo), also won a Merit award (Tertiary Student Project Category). Designed with the objective of bringing strangers together on rainy days, this device consists of a Bluetooth light that can be attached to the tip of an umbrella to indicate the willingness of sharing an umbrella, and a mobile app to facilitate communication among friends who have shared umbrella before. Video>>