The Google Developer Groups’ DevFest KL 2025 at Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation’s Campus brought together over 700 developers. The highlight of the event was a special appearance of APU alumni Ms Christine Tee and Mr Liew Jun Tung, who shared their expertise and inspired the thriving Malaysian Google developer community.

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DevFest GDG KL 2025 burst into life on 6 December 2025, with remarkable energy as more than 700 developers, technologists and AI enthusiasts gathered at Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) for one of Malaysia’s largest community-led technology events. 

Organised by Google Developer Groups Kuala Lumpur (GDG KL) — one of Malaysia’s most active Google-supported tech communities — the festival opened with a compelling line-up of expert speakers, immersive hands-on demonstrations, and cutting-edge showcases that reflected the region’s rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning ecosystem. 

As the official venue sponsor, APU played a pivotal role in enabling the event’s scale and success.

With strong emphasis on AI, cloud technologies, Android development, and modern software engineering practices, GDG KL continued to position itself at the forefront of nurturing Malaysia’s future digital talent. 

APU’s Auditorium Six, equipped with three giant screens and filled with constant interaction, provided a dynamic setting for in-depth discussions on Large Language Models (LLMs), post-training techniques, web-based machine learning, and the future of AI innovation.

DevFest GDG KL 2025 opened on a high note with a keynote address by Mr Umang Varma, Head of Customer Engineering at Google Cloud Malaysia, who set an inspiring tone for the conference by highlighting DevFest’s role as the world’s largest developer-driven technology gathering and a powerful platform for innovation, collaboration and network-building. 

Emphasising Google’s culture of shared learning, he encouraged participants to learn from one another and to channel that knowledge into building meaningful technologies capable of making a positive impact on the world.

The opening momentum continued with remarks from APU’s Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer, Professor Ir EUR ING Dr Vinesh Thiruchelvam, who expressed his appreciation to Google for partnering in the event and underscored APU’s commitment to industry collaboration. 

He highlighted APU’s strong international profile, with a diverse community of students from over 130 countries, global recognition and extensive partnerships, noting that such events brought together not only students and industry leaders, but also alumni who returned to contribute to the ecosystem. 

Stressing the importance of industry engagement, he shared that APU had formalised its partnership with Google, reaffirming the university’s vision of advancing “tech for good” and nurturing a campus environment that aspired to become a Silicon Valley–like hub for innovation.

Among the event’s highlights was a hands-on demonstration of a Mind-Controlled Drone, powered by Web AI, TensorFlow, and EEG signals, offering attendees an eye-opening glimpse into the possibilities of accessible, browser-based machine learning systems.

However, the most resonant moments for the APU community came when former students returned, not just as speakers, but as mentors giving back to the developer ecosystem that helped shape them.

The spotlight fell on Ms Christine Tee, Principal Machine Learning Engineer at Turing and Malaysia’s first Google Ambassador from APU. 

An APU alumna of the Software Engineering programme, Christine graduated in 2013 with First Class Honours and the Best Project Award. 

She delivered a highly anticipated session on Fine-Tuning the Gemma 2 2B-IT Model on GSM8K with Tunix: A JAX-Native Library for LLM Post-Training.

Returning to the very campus where she once completed her Final Year Project on Social Media Sentiment Analysis, Christine spoke to a packed auditorium, marking a powerful full-circle moment for both her and the institution. 

Her journey from APU student to global AI practitioner stood as a proud testament to the strength of the APU ecosystem, the dedication of its educators, and the international potential of Malaysian talent.

Alongside her, Mr Liew Jun Tung, Senior Software Developer at NetVirta, also returned to APU to support and uplift fellow developers. 

An alumnus of the Computer and Information System Security programme from the Class of 2024, Jun Tung was also recognised as the Top Google Student Ambassador in Southeast Asia. 

He conducted a practical and well-received workshop titled From Docker to Docker Compose, equipping participants with essential skills for modern software deployment and collaboration.

Special thanks were extended to Senior Lecturer from the School of Computing (SoC), Mr Jacob Sow Tian You, and Associate Professor Ts Dr Vinothini Kasinathan for transforming a weekend at APU into a memorable and energising experience for Malaysia’s growing tech talent.