After nearly three months of competing with 80 teams, the title of champion at the Developer Student Clubs Hackathon Vietnam 2024 belonged to the Com Delta team from FPT University, Hanoi.
The team of four young men, including Nguyen Hong Hai (Team Leader), Duong Xuan Bach, Phan Hoai Nam (majoring in Artificial Intelligence, batch 17), and Vu Trung Quan (majoring in Software Engineering, batch 18), presented the RecyCool project, an AI application for recycling waste into usable items. The prize awarded to the team was $1500 USD, along with other gifts.
With the slogan “Recycling AI, Beautiful Products,” the RecyCool project aims to become a leading educational application on recycling for over 1 million students by 2029. RecyCool was conceived with the goal of promoting waste sorting awareness before recycling among everyone. Its advantage lies in the use of AI technology, making it easy and convenient to use anywhere, stimulating children to learn actively, and enhancing awareness.
The success of RecyCool is also attributed to having a guiding “headquarters” that oversees strategy, work, emotions, and expectations to keep the team aligned with its initial mission. Team leader Hong Hai shared, “The competition took place during the Lunar New Year, so it was inevitable that the team would have the ‘Lunar New Year mood’ or ‘Chung cake aftertaste.’ However, as a team leader, I had to spend more time ‘thawing’ everyone’s spirits. I had to accept that I needed to become a more demanding person, spending more time and effort to perfect our outputs and especially to control the expectations of team members once again towards the direction the team desired.”
Hai added, “The prize is valuable not only for Com Delta but also for finding companions throughout the journey. Teammates have nurtured plans to understand each other over a long period of time. A dedicated mentor has helped the whole team understand the value of working for the community. Com Delta also thanks those who showed interest in the project, providing their practical perspectives to ensure the project will continue to develop and be implemented more extensively.”
Representatives from Com Delta added that the journey ahead is long and filled with challenges. The team continues to learn, not only to develop the product but also to contribute more to the community. Com Delta dreams of a day when AI is not just a tool for the tech community but also a companion for everyone.
Following their success at the GDSC Hackathon Vietnam 2024, the team’s upcoming direction is to further develop the product, conduct experiments, and participate in competitions to receive advice and new perspectives. The team will participate in the “Startup with KAWAI 2024” competition and promises to be a formidable contender in the upcoming event.
Google Developer Student Clubs Hackathon Vietnam (GDSC Hackathon Vietnam) is the first technology solution programming competition organized by the Google Developer Student Clubs Vietnam community. The competition is open to all students majoring in Information Technology or those passionate about computer science, programming, technology, etc., from universities and colleges across the country. The final round took place at VinUni at 12:45 PM on March 16, 2024.
Loc Nguyen.