At the Tech4Good Asia-Pacific competition held by Huawei in China from September 26-29, 2024, the SkyNet project, developed by students from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT), won first place and earned a spot in the global finals in 2025. The project, designed to assist in locating flood victims, impressed the judges with its innovative approach.
The Vietnamese team, “VNVD-VIETNAM VICTORIOUS,” was composed of six students from four leading universities: Mai Thị Phượng, Nguyễn Thị Thu Trang, and Đinh Hoàng Anh from PTIT; Phạm Quỳnh Trang from VinUni; Cao Sỹ Dương from Hanoi University of Science and Technology; and Trần Đăng Nam from the University of Transport and Communications, Ho Chi Minh City. Inspired by recent flooding events in Vietnam, the team developed the “SkyNet” project, which gained significant attention from the judges.
By winning first place, the team secured a spot in the global Tech4Good competition, which will take place in early 2025.
SkyNet addresses the challenge of quickly locating and rescuing individuals trapped in flood zones by using advanced technologies such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Mesh Networks, and Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback (RLHF) across a fleet of five drones.
Out of 25 teams, Vietnam and Cambodia were awarded joint first place in the competition and will both move on to the global Tech4Good event in 2025.
To compete in the Tech4Good Asia-Pacific contest, participants first had to pass through two rounds of the “Seeds for the Future 2024” program. Initially, over 400 students participated in the qualifying round, followed by a competition phase in which the top 40 students competed to achieve high academic scores to qualify for international competition.
In the final round of the Asia-Pacific competition, the six Vietnamese students competed against 24 other teams from across the region. After two rounds, they triumphed with their highly practical SkyNet project, which was presented in the context of Typhoon Yagi, which caused $2 billion in damages in Vietnam, equivalent to 0.5% of the country’s GDP.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Đặng Hoài Bắc, Director of PTIT, congratulated the students, highlighting that this victory continues PTIT’s track record of success, with students consistently reaching the final rounds and winning prestigious awards in the competition each year. PTIT aims to collaborate with global tech companies to develop digital talent in Vietnam through initiatives that connect businesses with students, co-organize competitions, and develop training programs while supporting educational activities.
Tech4Good is an annual startup competition hosted by Huawei, aimed at raising awareness of the challenges to sustainable development and the latest trends in digitalization, while encouraging the development of feasible technical and commercial solutions to address social issues.
