Pinoy student rewarded “Best Elevator Pitch” in Kaspersky Academy Cyber Security

Even not declared as the over-all winner, the 20 years old Dominic Baguio was awarded as “Best Elevator Pitch” in the recently completed Kaspersky Academy Cyber Security. The event was held last June 25-26 at the Royal Holloway, University of London.

Answers.com defined “Elevator Pitch” as a slang term used to describe a brief speech that outlines an idea for a product, service or project. The name comes from the notion that the speech should be delivered in the short time period of an elevator ride, usually 20-60 seconds.

Baguio is a senior college student currently enrolled in Computer Science at at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman. He is a product in one of the most prestigious secondary Schools in the Visayas, his hometown’s Cebu City National Science High School.

Among 14 finalist from 10 countries all over the world, Baguio was awarded as “Best Elevator Pitch” for his research presentation in London.

It was given to him for his poised delivery of his presentation on the research paper entry  that tackled on-the-fly encryption application for devices running on Android OS NewsBytes reports.

An on-the-fly encryption is a method that allows for easy access of files within a drive whenever and wherever one is. 

It was Baguio who represented the research paper in the competition, made with his classmate and thesis partner John Carlo Florencio.

It was the second time representatives from the Philippines were able to enter the grand finals.

Indonesian student Firman Azhari of Bandung Institute of Technology was declared overall winner of this year’s Kaspersky’s tilt for his study entitled “Detection of Security Vulnerability in Indonesian Near Field Communication (NFC) Applications.”

“I thank all our students for their outstanding performances in this year’s conference,” said Jimmy Fong, Channel Sales Director at Kaspersky Lab South East Asia.

“For 2013, we’ve had very strong contenders for the top prize. At the regional cup, we had 9 out of 15 selected papers from South East Asia, a major feat! And for the finals, our region’s best two representatives got each for themselves major victories,” he said. 

“Without a doubt, the quality of papers that has been coming from our region says so much about the students’ awareness on cybersecurity issues and the hard work they have put into it. I’m positive that these successes will inspire others that they, too, can come up with more innovative ideas that will make this world safe and protected from cyber criminals,” he added.