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Vietnam AI Grand Challenge Hackthon poster with a girl standing in front of it

Ho Chi Minh City Hackathon

The hackathon event attracted 17 teams and 68 developers, mostly consisting of university students and companies in the Southern region of Vietnam. For three days, teams focused developing virtual assistants using AI technology in areas such as self-driving, manufacturing, banking, hotel services, and more. On the final day of the competition, each team had two opportunities to present their ideas before the judges. Judges selected the top eight teams to present to the judges for the final round.

A hackathon team starting intently at a laptop while working
It's a race against the clock!

The Ho Chi Minh Hackathon did not have a first prize because the demo products did not fully meet the criteria outlined in the rules: business value, creativity, impressive factor, and practical application.

Second prize was awarded to team “tobtob.” The two member team, Nguyen Luu Ngoc and Luong Thi Thuy Trang, are both are developers from Singapore. Tobtob’s virtual assistant is a chatbot that provides customers the ability to order food and drinks in restaurants and hotels. This chatbot supports interaction with customers through voice and images, while responding to complex conversations. Users can order food by typing, chatting, or touching items on the menu. Tobtob’s chatbot also applies AI technology during the order process to exchange items and interact with its users. In the future, tobtob will try to increase the capabilities of the chatbot, and will also seek to integrate their chatbot into Ohmnilabs robots, creating a robot with the ability to become an AI waiter and cashier.

Three winning teams standing on stage holding their team's prize poster

The judging board in the Ho Chi Minh Hackathon brought together experienced Vietnamese experts in AI technology. The judges include:

  • Mr. Ha Vinh Duy - President and CEO of Worldline Technology. Mr. Ha is a pioneer of marketing technology, using his 13 years of expertise to assist businesses across Vietnam achieve growth through the use of disruptive technologies. 
  • Mr. Nguyen Tuan Minh - Head of Natural Language Processing at Defide Company, a company that develops Japanese commercial chatbots. Prior to Defide, Mr. Minh was the technical manager of AI at Panasonic R&D and Mobivi 1GC. 
  • Mr. Ngo Quoc Hung - Head of Artificial Intelligence of AINovation. Mr. Hung is also the director of the intelligence.edu.vn nonprofit program, and the AI ​​(CoTAI) talent center. 
  • Mr. Dang Nam Hai - Kambria and OhmniLabs's product development technical manager. Mr Dang has over 10 years of experience in operating and developing innovative products.

    Vietnam AI Grand Challenge Hackathon Judges on stage holding flowers
    Vietnam AI Grand Challenge Hackathon Judges

The first event of "Vietnam AI Grand Challenge 2019" hackathon took place on June 28-30 at FPT Polytechnic College (HCMC). This program was organized in conjunction with the Vietnamese government's Ministry of Science & Technology and the Ministry of Planning & Investment, Kambria worked alongside McKinsey & Company, VietAI, VnExpress Newspaper, and the Vietnam Innovation Network. We’d like to thank all of our partners and sponsors of the Vietnam AI Grand Challenge, and we look forward to the next rounds. We can’t wait to see what we can #BUIDL together!

Hackathon participants posing for a photo

For more information on our next hackathon event in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 12th, 2019, be sure to follow our Facebook Event Page!

The content for this article was previously covered by VNExpress, the highest ranking e-newspaper in Vietnam.

Author

Kambria is the first decentralized open innovation platform for Deep Tech (AI, Robotics, Blockchain, VR/AR…). Using our platform, anyone can collaborate in researching, developing and commercializing innovative ideas and get rewarded fairly for their contributions. Through partnerships with government agencies, top universities and leading companies, Kambria is dedicated to building a sustainable open innovation ecosystem to change the way we innovate and to accelerate advanced technology development and industry adoption. Together, let’s shape the future of technology where technology is open and contributes more to society.