Da Nang Youth Set Off for a Technology-Driven Future
© UNICEF Viet Nam
DA NANG, June 2021 – Tired of online learning? Need a reminder to keep you from falling asleep? No worries. A group of 16-year-old high school students from the central city of Da Nang will give you the solution with their latest application using artificial intelligence (AI).
Namely “I Will Wake You!,” the innovation was awarded first prize in Youth-ON!, an information technology Hackathon recently organized by UNICEF Viet Nam and Da Nang City as part of the Child Friendly Cities Initiative. The app was designed to help teachers improve teaching quality by gaining an oversight of the class situation empowered by data on levels of movement of the participants and identifying those who become inactive or fall asleep during the lesson.
© UNICEF Viet Nam
Well-applauded by the judging panel and audience, “I Will Wake You” was developed by DTLH, one of the 12 teams of adolescents aged between 15 and 18. Financially supported by the Botnar Fondation and facilitated by the Danang Business Incubator (DNES) and the Google Developer Group MienTrung (GDG MienTrung), Youth-ON! took place in the final weeks of June 2021 in the context of Da Nang going well into its COVID-19 social distancing and partial lock-down. As a result, all organization and outreach for the competition were done online.
First assembled as a team of friends in 2019, DTLH was inspired by practical programming that gives local young people tools to sort out varying daily issues from their own experience. The winning project is part of their series of “I Will..(guide/train/help)” initiative – including one targeting people with sight impairment in which a sensory camera is developed to attach to a cane sending signals on obstacles in front of the person who moves.
“Our strength lies in using AI to solve problems,” said Trần Nguyễn Thùy Dương, DTLH team leader. “We were thrilled to win the first prize. The competition gave us the chance to spend this lockdown summertime meaningfully – instead of each of us sitting in a corner searching for something to do to kill our time.”
“The playground is fairly large and packed,” said Nguyen Duy Nghiem, Director of the Greenwich University in Da Nang and a speaker/judge at the event. “This is one of the first large-scale Hackathon organized in Da Nang in recent years. Participating teams have come up with a lot of innovative ideas. With a vision into the future, one can see and count on a generation of young Da Nang people who will generate jobs and income if these batches and those alike receive proper incubation.”
© UNICEF Viet Nam
As a judge and an experienced local, Nghiem also shared his observation and hope for a new generation who break down stereotypes, “They were daring to try no matter whether success or failure awaits. This is not often the trait known among the central region natives.” “Despite the fact that Da Nang is still behind Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi when it comes to an enabling environment for technologies, these young people showed us that they can well compete nationally.”
“If given the right opportunities, Da Nang young locals will thrive.”
Voted as the favorite team by the audience, JubiLearn and its members explored the web as an useful communication platform for studying, knowledge dissemination and networking. They designed a website as a hub serving all sorts of studying exchanges including news update, skills provision and event-based tips for local high school students.
“Most of us who are passionate about coding are self-starters. We hope that someday coding and programming will be introduced to our school curriculum,” said Quang Huy from JubiLearn. “At the same time, opportunities like this Hackathon are sparse. What I gained most from the event was the learning experience from the trainers, facilitators and mentors who worked hard to share with us the best knowledge they have. That was what we needed.”
For the team members and many others, the platform was the first step for them towards their dreams. “It’s the first lesson, the motivation for our journey ahead,” Huy said.
“The facilitators and us often worked until 2 in the morning,” he said. “They had jobs to fulfil during the day, so we were only able to touch base and get advice in the evening. And for that we worked into the night.”
© UNICEF Viet Nam
For others like Hoang Minh from third-prize N_EURO_N (Neuron) and Viet Long from second-prize Rainbow Chicken Gangs, the competition was not much about the end results but the journey through it. It was the first time they got to know new friends and work as a team. “We tried to understand each other’s strengths and divided the work accordingly. I was so impressed with the two girls in our team who excelled at developing content, following a rigid and exhausting timetable and working into 5am every day but still in perfect sync as new friends.”
The teamwork experience, as they both agreed, was memorably one of a kind.
Quang Tin and Ngoc Quang, two mentor and facilitator expressed their expectation, “We hope the teams will continue with their projects and expand the scope for practical application. They always have a network of programmers on standby to support.” “Their endeavors will surely bring about future prospects for Da Nang and Viet Nam.”
“Technologies provide us the platform into the future. Staying dormant means being left behind,” Nghiem said. “In times like this, the event has gone beyond its primary goal of getting young people together for innovation. It showed us their ability to give and their wish to be part of a changing future.”
Indeed it’s in challenging times like this we all learn to give again – through our resilience and desire to thrive.
Click here to see the video capturing Youth-ON! Hackathon. – ENDS
