Computer Science Students Win 3rd Place, Secure Position and Internships With Dell

By UOW Malaysia KDU

On the 2nd and 3rd of February, UOW Malaysia KDU students took part in this year’s Hack2Hire Program organized by Dell Technologies. Four students from the Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons) program returned as 3rd place winners, with one more receiving a Permanent Job offer as a Software Engineer and two of our winners securing Internship position with Dell. Hack2Hire, in a nutshell, is an intentional platform for students to demonstrate their technical prowess, business judgment, disposition, and design thinking through solving real-life business problems with Information Technology.

Manickam Murugappan, Lam E Shuen, Dicky Larson, and Andrew Yong Zheng Dao, students from the Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons), known as the Quadcore Team, did not just win 3rd Place and top-level Bluetooth earpieces, but they also enjoyed an enriching and eye-opening experience.

Quadcore Team showcasing their Proposed System Architecture Diagram during the competition

Participants who joined this year’s Digital Virtual Hack2Hire were challenged to apply their programming skills and knowledge to coding and come out with a product within 48 hours. In response to the 48 hours of non-stop coding experience, Andrew shared, ‘It was undoubtedly to say that this hackathon event provided me an opportunity to work with a real-life problem by applying the programming skills and knowledge that were taught in our classes.’ Besides programming skills, participants were also challenged to utilize creative thinking, “outside the box” thinking, and collaboration skills.

“It was an exceptional experience where we were actually given a real-life problem statement and required to come out with a product in 24 hours. With the chance to discuss with the mentor and the real user of the product, it opened up our perspective to see the problem from a different point of view.” Dicky responded.

Both Lam E Shuen and Manickam Murugappan, who secured themselves internships position with Dell due to their outstanding performance, shared how Hack2Hire was an amazing and meaningful experience.

The moment when DELL Technologies announced the winners and shortlisted candidates

Pradeep Mishra, Director Dell Digital, shared a number of years ago the vision for the program. “Hack2Hire gives the leaders the advantage of time spent with the students to assess both their skills and competency, it brings out their suitability to the Dell culture code and how they thrive in pair programming. The bonus is the learning, for the students and the leaders.”

Once again, congratulations to UOW Malaysia KDU students for their victory and being able to secure great careers commencing this year with Dell. A special thanks to Dell Technologies for organizing the program globally and annually to discover and produce some of the finest and most innovative programmers and leaders of the future.