An ICT application, that is being jointly developed by the Concurrent Engineering Research Unit of the Department of Manufacturing Engin-

eering, and the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, University of Malta, has been awarded the best project in the R&D category in the second National ICT Achievement Awards organised by the Computer Society of Malta.

Dr Ing. Jonathan Borg and Ing. Philip Farrugia from the Department of Manufacturing Engin-eering received the award on behalf of the research team from Industry, Investment and IT Minister Austin Gatt.

The project is funded by the University of Malta Research Grant Innova-tive Early Stage Design Product Prototyping (InPro).

In essence, the goal of this InPro project is to develop an ICT application that makes it possible for its users to obtain 3D virtual models on cameraphones directly from paper-based sketch representations. A tool nicknamed X-SKetch has been developed as a proof-of-concept.

The InPro project will give rise to new ways of how mobile technologies can be used and will also have an impact on the services provided by mobile communication service providers. Given its simple sketch-based user-interface, X-SKetch enables the public to easily interact with computer-aided design systems and many other modelling applications.

Due to its potential and novelty, this on-going research project has received a number of awards. These include the best final year project by the Chamber of Engineers (Malta) twice (2001 and 2003), the best final year project by the Group of Professional Engineers (Malta), the most innovative project by the Malta branch of the Institute of Engineering Designers (UK) and the best paper at the NordDesign 2002 conference held in Norway. This project idea is covered by patent no. 2130.

Further details and a video demonstration on the X-SKetch system can be found at http://www. eng.um.edu.mt/~ceru/