Announcement of Winners of the CELEST Essay Competition 2019

Congratulations to the winners of the CELEST Essay Competition 2019 and a big ‘thank you’ to all who participated.

The essays were assessed by a panel of six judges comprising practising lawyers and academics, all of whom are well-versed in data protection law. The essays were anonymized and the judges considered each one for knowledge on relevant legal and technological issues, critical analysis, originality and contribution, presentation and compliance with the competition rules.

The winners of the competition are:

First place, with a RM1,500 prize
Ho Wen Hui, Faculty of Law, Multimedia University
Title of essay: Artificial Intelligence: Testing the Resilience of Malaysian Data Protection Law

Second place, with a RM1,000 prize
Peh Qi Hui, Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya
Title of essay: Artificial Intelligence, The Spy Among Us

Third place, with a RM800 prize
Yung Jia Heng, Faculty of Law, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Title of essay: AI and Data Privacy: How Should We Deal with It? 

The prizes are sponsored by our collaborators, Messrs Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill.

Many congratulations again to the three winners!

Tay Pek San, PhD
Associate Professor
Director of Centre for Law and Ethics in Science and Technology
Faculty of Law
Universiti Malaya
Kuala Lumpur
22 January 2020

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Advances in science and technology play an increasingly important role in the development of the law. The impact of scientific and technological advancements on every area of our lives and the world around us has necessitated a reconsideration of the extent to which law should adjust to facilitate such advancements or regulate them, for instance, on the grounds of national security or morality. Today, one of the fastest growing technologies is artificial intelligence (AI). AI technology powers many of the software programs used in diverse types of industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, finance, transportation, entertainment, retail and crime detection. With so many machines that assist us in our day-to-day activities being powered by AI, the technology also has a great impact on the way we live and work.

With the aim of promoting and stimulating interest among undergraduate law students to explore legal challenges that arise from the interaction between law and ethics with science and technology, the Centre for Law and Ethics in Science and Technology (CELEST), Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya in collaboration with Messrs Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill are pleased to announce an essay competition on the above theme:
We welcome essay submissions which address any aspect that falls within the theme.

Rules for Submission

1. The Essay Competition is open to all undergraduate law students who are Malaysian citizens.
2. Essays must be written in English by a sole author and may not exceed 2,500 words including footnotes.
3. Essays should be the author’s original unpublished work and accompanied by a suitable title.
4. Essays must be saved as a single file in .doc or .docx format and emailed to Celest Director at celest@um.edu.my with the subject line “CELEST Essay Competition 2019”. The typeface is Times New Roman, 12 font size with 1.5 line spacing. For footnotes, the formatting specification is Times New Roman, 10 font size and single line spacing.
5. Submissions must include a cover page stating the author’s name, NRIC number, programme enrolled in, university or college name and address, email address and contact number.
6. The deadline for submission is 30 November 2019.

Results and Prizes

The results of the competition will be announced on CELEST webpage at https://law.um.edu.my/celest-events by 31 January 2020. The winners will be notified by email.

The top three winners will receive the following prizes:

1. First prize: RM1,500, Second prize: RM1,000, Third prize: RM800
2. The submission of the winners will be considered for publication in one of the journals of the Faculty of Law, Universiti of Malaya.
3. The winners will be placed at an advantageous position when applying for internship or reading in chambers at Messrs Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill.