VKII-COM: Dear Habib, you won the 2nd price of last year’s VKII Best Student Award. Could you please briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Habib Momo Kamdem Kouam. I was born in Douala, Cameroon. I am unmarried, work and live in Greater Stuttgart, Germany.

VKII-COM: How did you come to know about VKII´s activities in particular of its call for paper for the Best Student Award (BSA) contest?

I owe my first contact with the VKII to the former VKII chairman Prof. Dr. Christophe Bobda. Thanks to him, I became aware of the associations activities since 2006 and he further drew my attention to the initiation of the VKII Best Student Award competition. Since then I became and remained a member of VKII.

VKII-COM: What encouraged you to take part in this award and how did you proceed?
What was your motivation?

Firstly, it was very important to me to know where I could be, compared to other Cameroonian young academician. Secondly, I was also interested in knowing how my work would be evaluated by an expert jury of Cameroonian scholars outside the university. Nevertheless, I must honestly admit that the chance of winning the price was also a big incentive. After all, one has just to summarize his finished thesis and get a big award for it (little effort for an interesting price). With all of these given, I believe there is enough motivation for any graduate. Isn’t it so?

VKII-COM: Could you briefly elucidate your master thesis, which made you worth this award?

The thesis was about the development and integration of a real-time operating system to an on-target hardware from the automotive sector. Such operating systems offer the advantage of a guaranteed deterministic system behaviour which is of high relevance to safety-critical applications such as in the automotive sector. These are the equivalent to the well known Windows/Unix operating systems in the PC domain, and usually run on small embedded computers called microcontrollers. They offer a basic functionality for other software applications such as cruise controller, parking helper, etc in the automotive sector.

Habib Momo with his professors and advisor for the master thesis

VKII-COM: You were 2nd in the BSA 2008 contest. Were you disappointed that your work was not evaluated fort he 1st price or were you rather happy for the 2nd price?

I am gratefully satisfied with the 2nd price, though I would have been happier with the first price. Moreover, everyone (including me) will understand and accept that an independent committee of experts confidently decides which candidate gets which position, thus there is no need for me being disappointed about the position. The jury has carefully reviewed and evaluated the works. A work was better than mine. Congratulations to the first winners.

VKII-COM: Many Cameroonian participants submitted for the BSA 2008 contest both from Cameroon and from Europe. Etienne Meyenna from “Ecole Nationale Supérieur Polytechnique”, Cameroon won the 1st price of the BSA 2008. Could this be interpreted as a sign of the increasing competitiveness of Cameroonian universities?

I have a great respect for the performance of students from Cameroon especially as we all know they have a relatively less-equipped academic environment as we in Europe and in industrial countries. Due to lack of a comparative basis I cannot comment on the competitiveness of Cameroonian universities.

VKII-COM: Has this award an impact on your career? If yes, how?

Well not directly. When I got the award, I was already employed at “BOSCH”. The 150 € voucher for books, however, enabled me to buy books, which I normally borrowed before from the company’s library. To that extent the award has helped me in my career. I am grateful to the VKII.

VKII-COM: Finally Habib, what’s your message to encourage other young Cameroonian students worldwide who will someday want to be awardees of “VKII Best Student Award” competition?

I can only encourage you to massively participate in the competition. As already mentioned, you have nothing to lose. I am happy to repeat the point: little effort for an interesting price. So boys and girls do not miss this chance!!!

VKII-COM: Thank you Habib for your willingness for this interview and we wish you all the best in your current and future activities.

I thank you also and wish VKII a long active live and especially more ingenious innovations like the “Best Student Award”.

By VKII Communication team

For more information on the VKII and the Best Student Award 2009 visit:

http://www.vkii.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=220&Itemid=1