2023/24 Team

Executive Board:

President – Matthew Camilleri
Vice President – Rianne Azzopardi
Secretary General – Andrea Borg
Treasurer – Ema Grech
Public Relations Officer – Sean Fenech
Academic Officer – Raisa Attard Flores
International Officer – Thaina Helena de Oliviera Alves
Media Officer – Christabelle Saliba
Marketing Officer – Gaetano Francalanza

Presidential Comment

“I am honoured and excited to be leading this year’s executive team for the upcoming
2023/2024 term. I am determined to continue the works of previous executive teams to
enhance IT and general students’ life on campus. I look forward to working with other
student organisations to improve student activism.”

The Third Eye wishes the new executive the best of luck!

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2022/23 Executive List

• President – Andrea Borg
• Vice President – Etienne Cauchi
• Secretary General – Matthew Camilleri
• Treasurer – Ema Grech
• Public Relations Officer – James Francis Mizzi
• Academic Officer – Rianne Azzopardi
• Events Officer – Gabriel Pace
• International Officer – Luigi Naudi
• Marketing Officer – Raisa Attard Flores
• Media Officer – Christabelle Saliba

Presidential Comment

I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to lead this enthusiastic team of exceptional individuals. We are all looking forward to a productive term during which we will do our utmost to represent the best interests of IT students and organise events to help them connect with their fellow peers as well as network with the industry

Andrea Borg

The Third Eye wishes the new executive the best of luck!

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ICTSA has the perfect event – Reload the Classics, ICTSA’s most anticipated event of the year, is back with a bang after two years!

This night will not only have all of your favorite songs and a fantastic DJ lineup, but it will also include an open bar!

Ready to kickstart your summer?

• Join ICTSA on July 16th, at 20:00, at Montekristo Renaissance Pjazza
• Sing your hearts out and bust out your favourite dance moves with these DJs: ZRINZ , BAK , GABII , Kugene
• Tickets are €20 each and can be purchased by contacting any of the executive members or one of their designated runners

The post Reload The Classics | The After Exams Open Bar appeared first on The Third Eye.

ICTSA’s The Million Dollar Idea is just that! This annual event taking place at the Faculty of ICT from the 8th to 10th of April puts you against other teams for 3 days. With the help of mentors and workshops, your idea will be developed and then presented in front of a panel of judges.

The best idea is then rewarded. This year’s theme is IT in Education. The use of Information Technology can make it easier to work, learn and teach. This is especially true given the pandemic, where IT has made it possible for students to keep on learning, irrespective of where they are. IT in Education does not stop at Zoom so gather your ideas and join us.

How do I enter?

You can enter the competition alone or with a team of a maximum of 5 people from any academic background by filling in this form by 6/4/2022, so be quick!

Prizes!

To top the competition off, the winner is entitled to a whopping €600 cash prize and one year enrolment with TAKEOFF. While the runner up also receives one year enrolment with TAKEOFF, €200 and a 3-month internship with Malta Gaming Authority which can help your bring idea to life. The best part is that participation is completely FREE. So gather your teammates, get creative and see you at this year’s The Million Dollar Idea.

Make sure to keep an eye on our ICTSA event page for more details and updates in the following days.

What are you waiting for? Join in and show us what you’ve got.

The post Does Your Start-up Idea Have What It Takes? | The ICTSA The Million Dollar Idea appeared first on The Third Eye.

It is estimated that the ICT sector alone represents 4.8% of the European economy. This is because ICT plays an important role in all other work sectors. With ICT, companies can make it easier for customers, suppliers, and distributors to achieve business. It is also very important in our daily lives. Lack of appropriate information at the right time will result in low productivity, low-quality research work, wasted time pursuing information, and even doing research done in other countries. Today, ICT cannot be separated from our daily needs, and we cannot resort to the business and research methods of the past as the expectations are now much higher. This in turn is a direct result of having technology at our fingertips.

What is the EU doing to promote technology?

As explained above, Technology has become an essential part of our day to day lives. Because of this, it is important for the EU to encourage investments as well as raise awareness and interest in the ICT sector. Currently the EU has several projects which aim to do so.

The SciChallenge project focuses on creating new concepts to integrate young boys and girls in science education using a competition-based approach to self-produced digital education materials from young people for young people. Introduced in September 2015 and ending in August 2017, the EU invested a total of €1,342,844 towards this project.

Another project which the EU focused on was STEM4youth. The STEM4youth project aimed at taking the core science subjects back to the classroom but adding an element of fun, to show teenagers that science is still interesting and exciting and that it is central to many careers which they may pursue in the future. This project spanned from May 2016 till October 2018, with an investment of €1,766,936 from the EU.

The role of gender in STEM

Although we are hearing a lot more about it nowadays, there still exists a Gender Gap when it comes to STEM. According to WiD 2019 (Women in Digital, a study performed by the EU), only 34% of STEM graduates are female. This gap is further increased when looking specifically at the ICT sector. Studies show that only 17% of ICT specialists are women. However, previous studies from 2014 show that differences in the subjects taken up by males and females have long been different.

Figures showed that there had been more female graduates from subjects associated with health, humanities, the arts, social sciences, and law, with men dominating fields such as technology, science, maths, engineering, manufacturing, and construction. To help combat these figures, the European Commission has organised a Girls 4 STEM in Europe initiative as well as holding a ‘Prize for Women Innovators’, an award that acknowledges women working on innovative solutions to modern problems.

What more can the EU do?

Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, physical education had to be paused in most cases. Although this helped boost the use of technology in education, many children, especially of young age were negatively affected. Technology is meant to help in the education of children, however, when these children, their parents and/or their educators do not know how to use this technology, it does more harm than good. Therefore, the EU should not only continue focussing on informing people about the importance of STEM but should also help provide sufficient information and help about how these digital tools should be used.

With regards to projects, the ICT sector is in no way lacking. However, not many people know about all the initiatives the EU are taking. More exposure to these projects and initiatives should be considered. Exposure to initiatives alone may not be enough. The EU needs also to invest in making sure that technology is really accessible to all and that no minority is excluded.

The Future

When looking back, technology has indeed come a long way. The post-war era was the starting point for modern technology as we know it today, and it has only advanced exponentially from then. If we were to consider technology as a language, the older generation would use it as a second language. The newer generation has been born into technology and so it has become an essential part of their lives and a native language for them. Imagine the potential of technology when this newer generation becomes the leaders of tomorrow!

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However, just like any other company, they all started out as an idea in a simple man’s head, which they slowly cultivated into the multinational, influential corporations they are nowadays.

This is what entrepreneurship is all about. The word “entrepreneur” is thrown around at many people for doing anything. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, all classified as entrepreneurs. But even your idea of building a hotel for animals can make you a potential entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are found in all types of industries with all types of backgrounds. In reality, anyone can be an entrepreneur. But that is easier said than done.

While having the right tools to start off your business is important, you will also need determination and ready for the risk. It is not going to be easy, but it will be rewarding. Now, this may seem interesting (even a little bit scary) but ICTSA is here to set the ball rolling. If all this is just what you dream to become, then ICTSA’s ‘The Million Dollar Idea’ might be just for you.

Unfortunately last year, ICTSA had to cancel the event due to the pandemic but this time, it will be completely online! TMDI is a 3-day start-up competition that will be taking place between the 16th and 18th April. Inspired by the global pandemic, the theme for this year will be ‘ICT in Health’ .

How do I enter?

You can form a team of up to 5 people from any academic background. Together you will need to come up with an idea, relevant to this year’s competition’s chosen theme; through workshops, you will be able to develop your idea and then pitch it to the judges!

And do not worry, a mentor will be guiding you to evolve your idea further and make your business idea as good as it can be before presenting it to the judges! You’re probably wondering about the prize… well the winner is entitled to a €600 cash prize, and €400 for the runner up, which can help bring your idea to life. And if that’s not good enough to apply, participation is completely free, so there is nothing to lose. I believe this is a win-win situation.

So grab your thinking caps, gather your teammates, get creative apply by clicking here! ICTSA will be posting more details and updates so make sure to check out their event page here!

The post The Million Dollar Idea: a step towards entrepreneurship | ICTSA appeared first on The Third Eye.

The list of the new tea for the term 2020/21 goes as follows:

• President – Sarah Jane Buttigieg
• Vice President – Logan Formosa
• Secretary General – Bernard Cassar
• Treasurer – Andrew Caruana Montaldo 
• Public Relations Officer – Randy Cassar
• Marketing Officer – Francesca Mizzi
• Events Officer – Paolo Bezzina
• Academic Officer – Gerard Coleiro 
• International Officer – Ben Bezzina
• MCAST Officer – Chris Azzopardi 

Having been elected as president, Sarah Jane Buttigieg shared her thoughts with The Third Eye on her new role;

After a successful and memorable year last term, I look forward to working with this great team of people and giving them the same experience I was given. I am excited to see what this next year holds, and hoping it will be better than the last. Good luck to the new executive, I have no doubt that this year will be great!

The post Sarah Jane Buttigieg to lead ICTSA for 20/21 appeared first on The Third Eye.

This year’s ICTSA Industry Expo promises to be the biggest opportunity yet for students undertaking any ICT related courses to discover new companies and get insight on what they offer, learning first hand from the experts who power the fields.

Moreover, attending companies will be demonstrating their business operations and the technologies they utilise while explaining available and prospective vacancies and trends.

This also serves as a great opportunity for the students to survey the commercial aspect of the current career landscape, network with their potential future employers and most importantly find their career path!

The Expo will take place at the Faculty of ICT’s Lower Lobby (Level 1-), University of Malta, from 11:00 till 18:00, and is open to the public especially to those students studying in ICT or related fields. Activities such as the Industry Expo fulfil ICTSA’s mission to bridge the gap between students and industry.

The post Experience the Expo | ICTSA appeared first on The Third Eye.

All teams will be subject to having the guidance of mentors. The role of the mentor is to help the group develop their idea and further perfect their business plan to be presented to the board of judges. After the Final Presentation, a winner and a runner up will be chosen by the panel and prizes are up for grabs.

The winner would be entitled to a €500 cash prize, a Start-Up Package by Take-Off which would give the winners a safe space for further development of their winning idea and other services, whilst the runner-up would get a year membership with TakeOff which will supply the winning team with an office space to further develop their ideas and not to mention a €500 cash prize as well as other prizes. As if the possibility of winning one of these prizes was not good enough, participation is free so you have nothing to lose!

Apart from all this, participants will be sleeping over throughout the weekend and so due to limited spaces, all teams will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis.

So, put together a dream team, get creative and apply via this link http://bit.ly/TMDI2019 !

Follow our Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/2322673408056492/

Think you’ve got the million dollar idea? This is your chance to prove it.

The post Creative and Business Driven? | ICTSA Million Dollar Idea appeared first on The Third Eye.

The Businesses

Congrats to all the students who attended! Your enthusiasm, eagerness and informed questions were duly noted. That said, the gist of feedback from businesses was a wide appreciation for all the enthusiasm and informed questions supplied by the attendees. 

The Students

To those that didn’t go – you missed out on freebies! At least that’s partly what the students we asked noted. Those present also commended the event as a great opportunity for networking and just getting general information about companies you might potentially work with.

ICTSA

Year after year the students don’t disappoint. ICTSA praised this year’s expo as a record turnout that even exceeded their expectations! That was not to mention the businesses that provided a quality first-hand experience for all the visitors. 

ICTSA also personally commented on their event and expressed their gratitude for another successful Industry Expo!

Today ICTSA held the 5th edition of their ICTSA Industry Expo, together with the Faculty of ICT, where the event took place. Here a record number of attending students visited over 20 companies and learnt about what they offer to the industry. Students had the opportunity to get insight on what each company offers, learning first hand from the experts who power the fields. This served as a great opportunity for students to survey the commercial aspect of the current
career landscape and to network with their potential future employers.

ICTSA would like to thank the participating companies who took their time to exhibit their work, as well as all the students who attended and interacted with the companies. This event wouldn’t have been possible without the continuous support of the Faculty of ICT. 

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