SA entrants bullish on Imagine Cup

By Warwick Ashford for Microsoft
Johannesburg, 26 Jul 2005

Two Masters students from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, formerly the Port Elizabeth Technikon, are to represent SA at the third annual international Microsoft Imagine Cup taking place in Yokohama, Japan in the next five days.

Robert Goss and Demetrios Loutsios developed an intrusion detection application to win top spot in the 2004 national Microsoft Project Firefly software design competition.

The win was the second consecutive victory for a team of students from the Eastern Cape institution in the South African leg of Microsoft`s international Imagine Cup. About 50 000 students from around the world compete in the event globally. Last year, the PE Technikon team came fourth in the international event.

Professor Maree Pather attributes the success of his department`s students to a comprehensive approach to teaching IT that ensures exposure to everything from Linux to Windows.

"We are focusing on .Net, but also teach Java as well as security and networking in a hands-on laboratory environment to produce good quality students," says Pather.

"Because the university is a member of the Academic Alliance, students also have easy access to software development tools and support from Microsoft," adds Goss.

This week, the students` Sentinel Intrusion Detection System (IDS) software will go up against entries from 43 other countries.

Although Goss and Loutsios admit there is no way of knowing what the competition will be like, judging from last year`s entries, they are confident of doing well.

[VIDEO]"The Sentinel IDS application is based on our supervisor`s doctoral thesis that proposes a model for an intrusion detection system that combines the rules-based procedures of fuzzy logic with the learning abilities of neural networks to trigger alerts," said Goss before departing for Japan.

The students explained their solution is a hybrid system because it uses anomaly detection along with signature files to predict malicious activity in a network, combining the best of both worlds to push beyond the traditional limits of intrusion detection.

"We used the C# programming language because of its memory management capabilities, and the .Net framework helped take care of the simple tasks, enabling us to concentrate on the more complex part of the project like the artificial intelligence engines," explained Loutsios.

"The combination of fuzzy logic and neural networks as well as the use of the .Net framework in the intrusion detection field could possibly be a world first," says Danny Naidoo, developer and platform group director at Microsoft SA.

"Imagine Cup participants are the next-generation technology leaders whose creativity and innovation inspires us," he adds.

In addition to the software design category in which Goss and Loutsios are representing SA, this year`s Imagine Cup is to host eight other invitational competitions in digital filmmaking, computer graphics rendering, algorithm development, computer game design, office application design, business model development, IT system analysis and Web development.