Outstanding Computer Science Undergraduates Triumph in National IT Competition

Two final-year undergraduates, Martas The Atom Gautam and Ruiqi Zhuang, successfully clinched the First Prize in the undergraduate category at the Cross-strait with Hong Kong and Macau University Students' Innovation IT Project Competition 2024, held in Macau.

Martas who was also the sole recipient of the Best Practical Value Award, his project, titled "Transformer-Based Reverse Transliteration Model for Nepali Language", focused on developing a state-of-the-art reverse transliteration tool that can accurately convert Romanized Nepali text into the traditional Nepali script thereby addressing the issue of digital inclusivity for speakers of low-resource languages.

While Ruiqi's award-winning project, titled "AI for Drug Synergy Prediction", focused on developing a novel pipeline to enhance the accuracy of drug synergy prediction models. This involved incorporating pathological features and employing an attention-based feature fusion approach, providing more robust and reliable drug synergy prediction models.

Dr. Yang Liu, Assistant Professor and Final Year Project Coordinator of the Department, remarked, "Amidst this intense national IT competition, Martas and Ruiqi have exhibited outstanding performances. It is truly impressive to see both succeed in synthesising the knowledge gained from their academic studies into innovative projects that tackle real-world challenges."

Organised by Computer Education Research Association of Chinese Universities and the Internet Professional Association, the Cross-strait with Hong Kong and Macau University Students' Innovation IT Project Competition has been a key event in the field of computer science in China since 2006. Each year, the competition attracts tens of thousands of university students from 250 different higher education institutions in China to compete.