STIers Win Big in Global Huawei Competition

By: Miguel La Torre , January 12, 2024

Three students from STI College Tagaytay bagged the 2^nd runner-up in the Huawei Developer Competition 2023 Asia-Pacific region in Shenzen, China

Team IC composed of BS Information Technology (BSIT) students Dan Torrecampo, Carlo Ledesma, and Jet Maquiling secured a podium finish, marking a historic achievement as the first Filipinos to reach the final stage in the global competition.

Presenting their innovation Intercommunication, a website application they developed to aid users in communicating effectively, the trio went against all odds as the country’s sole representative in the event organized by one of the world’s leading technology companies.

“To God be all the glory,” Maquiling exclaimed in an interview. “We never knew we have such capabilities; we have the skills; and it gave us the confidence and motivation to do more,” added Maquiling who was also chosen to be one of the Huawei Cloud Campus Ambassadors.

Behind success stories, however, lies an uphill struggle; and the troika wasn’t spared from such. Facing a one-week deadline to submit their product, the three rushed their brainstorming sessions.

Moreover, they had to make do with the limited resources they had while treading uncharted waters.

"It was new for us,” said Torrecampo before the final round of the competition. “Nowadays, it's easy to decipher technology through YouTube, but for Huawei, it’s different. We didn’t have many resources to easily understand,” he added.

But with their hard work and perseverance; on top of the help of their coach and professor Mr. Nigel Nasis and the guidance of ICT & Engineering Courseware Head Ms. Beronika Peña, the team was able to come up with their award-winning app.

Integrating Huawei’s world-class technology, the app allows users to upload videos of themselves doing a presentation. The app’s AI algorithms will then analyze for errors in speech and gestures and indicate possible improvements.

“It’s an application that acts as a speech coach/trainer,” Ledesma said about their masterpiece. “It allows individuals to track their progress as they practice, and they can pinpoint areas for self-improvement,” he added.

“We just pushed forward to understand various things using the resources available to us,” Ledesma furthermore said. “None of this would have been possible without the guidance of our mentors. They took care of us, distributed excuse letters to our classes so we could practice, and used their own time just to focus on us,” he added.

What’s next for the team is polishing Intercommunication to live up to its promise of catering to every student and professional in the country when it comes to developing their presentation skills.

But for now, the three are setting their sights on finishing the first semester of the school year with flying colors. They are, after all, a student first before anything else.

“Having this for an experience motivates us that we can accomplish anything,” Torrecampo said. “It serves as a motivation for us to push through, do more good things in the future, and continue our passion for learning and improving,” he added.