A life-sized virtual robot capable of navigating a complex maze to perform rescue and combat operations in the shortest time possible - this was one of the innovative solutions that emerged out of the 2008 National Infocomm Competition (NIC) , an event which saw about 3,000 students pitting their infocomm skills against each other in a series of 12 challenges.

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Developed through creative software programming and animation, the robot won the Raffles Infocomm Club the National StrITwise Challenge of NIC 2008.

Speaking at the award presentation ceremony, which also marked the launch of NIC 2009, Guest of Honour RADM(NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, noted that NIC 2008 "threw up interesting and relevant solutions".

Ian Chua Yong Kwang, 16, who created the virtual robot together with his teammates, said of the competition, "There was no easy route to success. Each victory took time and effort. Each defeat (was) a sign of not working hard enough, and something we will strive to improve on in the future."

As a team, the Raffles Institution were champions of the Secondary Circuit, winning many of the biggest challenges in NIC 2008. In the Junior College Circuit, Hwa Chong Institution trumped the competition while Ngee Ann Polytechnic School of InfoComm Technology topped the Polytechnic/ Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Circuit. Champion team prizes for each circuit of NIC 2008 included a knowledge acquisition trip to Silicon Valley.

Musing on the results, Hwa Chong's Joel Ong Jia Mian, 18, said, "We performed best in the software challenge (last year). We also obtained good results in the Schools Digital Media Awards. However, we didn't do so well in X-site (an educational design challenge) and the National Olympiad in Informatics (NOI) challenge, mostly because we weren't very well-prepared."

However, the Hwa Chong team is optimistic about NIC 2009. "We hope to perform better this year, and have actually gotten off to a pretty good start by doing spectacularly for NOI 2009," said Joel.

Ian: There was no easy route to success. Each victory took time and effort.

Going forward, NIC 2009 will again pit students from secondary schools, junior colleges, polytechnics and ITEs against each other in a range of exciting challenges ranging from algorithm design and creating Web applications, to creating digital media clips and games.

Over the years, the NIC challenges have evolved along with changes in technology. When the first NIC started in 2006, the challenges revolved around areas such as business IT, mobile technology and programming. As RADM(NS) Lui noted, "As the NIC gained traction, the challenges were expanded to cover more areas such as interactive digital media, infocomm security, networking and Web 2.0 applications."

Indeed, the NIC 2009 challenges not only include programming applications and solving business problems; it also pits students together in new challenges such as digital forensic investigations of "IT crimes", and a challenge whereby students compete to weed out "rogue" Internet Access Points.