Ask Zhao Jianing and Weng Yang about cool places to date and they will point to a computer laboratory at the Macau Polytechnic Institute.
The two students' romance blossomed at the 100-square-foot facility and their mutual support translated into a wonderful invention - the Mobile Firewall software which won an international award.
They spent nearly 10 hours a day in the lab. To them, there was little difference between studying and dating.
After winning a Macau invention contest last year, their software design went on to claim the Excellence Award at the fifth Asia Pacific Information and Communication Technology Awards competition in Thailand in March.
'We did not treat our research as work. We did it for fun,' said Mr Zhao, 23, a fourth year computer student from the mainland.
The software, which can be easily installed in mobile phones, helps users reject unwanted calls in a polite way.
If a 'blacklisted' person calls, the phone will not ring and the caller will find that 'the line is busy'.
