SLA Mobile KL win the Malaysian Lego Mindstorms Battlebots and Boomz competition!
By Philip Stanfield
SLA Mobile’s team in Kuala Lumpur are extremely innovative and competitive. Led by software guru Amin Mohd and Badlishah, on the 27th April SLA Mobile won the Malaysian Lego Mindstorms Battlebots and Boomz competition held at the Technology Park Malaysia, up against competition including Accenture. The event was sponsored by Oracle, the Malaysian Development Economic Corporation (MDeC) and the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) http://malaysia.iasapacific.org/content/itarc-malaysia-2010.

The competition was held for Java architects to encourage the development of next generation user interfaces and web applications. Each team was given Lego Mindstorm Nxt 2.0 parts including motorised wheels and touch sensors, plus a laptop. The challenge was to write clever software to outwit your opponent and push their robot out of the arena… or flip it over. SLA Mobile’s ‘Fugobot’ emerged victorious against all contenders whether they were from local specialist companies or a multinational System Integration.
An interesting reflection of real life where SLA usually finds itself competing worldwide against both the local experts and the big global SI. The reasons we win are the same – technology innovation, fantastic professional people, a passion for winning and of course yet again it highlights the quality of software development in Malaysia.
The competition was great fun but we took it seriously too and it was great to be recognised by sponsors including The International Association of Software Architects (IASA) who, with 70,000 members in over 50 countries, are the premier association focused on the architecture profession through the advancement of best practices and education while delivering programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world.

