Undergraduates CHEUNG Ka Chun, WONG Chun Tim, and YUEN Siu Hung Awarded Hong Kong ITF ICT Final Year Scholarship 2010-2011

Computer Science and Engineering undergraduates CHEUNG Ka Chun, WONG Chun Tim, and YUEN Siu Hung has been awarded Hong Kong Information Technology Federation Information and Communications Technology Final Year Scholarship 2010-2011- Certificate of Merit by Hong Kong Information Technology Federation with their final year project "A Collaborative Android Application Providing an Online Google Map with Audible Cantonese Location Pronunciations for Expats and Tourists in Hong Kong" supervised by Prof. Jogesh MUPPALA.

Hong Kong has many locations with names which are difficult for foreigners to remember. Foreigners often have troubles with communicating with local citizens, especially taxi drivers, when they go to various places. The project is an application which allows users to select the text language: English, Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese. When users tap on a location in Hong Kong on the Google map, the system displays the address name in three languages. The users can choose to hear the pronunciation in English, Cantonese or Putonghua. The system utilizes a built-in Android text-to-speech (TTS) engine for English, an open source TTS engine for Putonghua, and a custom-made TTS engine for Cantonese. It also links to a website called Expat / Tourist Sharing Board which is also created by the students. Users can view additional useful information on the website.

The judging criteria of the scholarship included creativity and innovation, commercial practicability for implementation, and presentation skills.