HÀ NỘI — Nguyễn Văn Thuận and Mai Thanh Tùng from RMIT University Vietnam won third prize as a team in the final round of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ADSE) competition held in Singapore.

Their project “Conquering the Waves of Global Trade” addresses the issue of disadvantaged trading due to the disparity in sea transport capacity among ASEAN countries.

The ASEAN Data Science Explorer competition was co-organised by cloud-computing company SAP and ASEAN Foundation. This year, in its second edition, the competition coincided with Singapore’s ASEAN chairmanship.

The competition reached out to 5,000 youths across 175 institutes of higher learning in ASEAN to increase their digital literacy and cultivate a greater sense of responsibility and ownership of the region’s future.

They received training in SAP’s Analytics Cloud software through a series of webinars and in-country seminars, thereafter using their newly-acquired data skills to tackle six selected United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, including good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities.

“Watching the presentations of other teams, I realised that ASEAN is facing many problems, from social issues like mental health and unemployment to economic and political ones like corruption and entrepreneurship weaknesses,” said Nguyễn Văn Thuận from Việt Nam.

“In the context of global digitisation, the demand for data analysis workers is very high. I’m happy that I can learn more about data analysis through this competition,” he said.

Mai Thanh Tùng, his team mate, said that after taking part in the competition, he realised: “Data analysis software is a powerful aid for all analytical needs”.

Team Plan B of Singapore, comprising Tay Kai Jun and Madhumitha Ayyappan from NUS High School of Math and Science, was crowned the ASEAN champion for their project “From Slumming to Sustainability” that aimed to galvanise ASEAN to transform slums into sustainable microcities.

Team Dimicrocambio of the Philippines, comprising Jade Hizon and John Rusty Perena from the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology, was the runner-up. Their project “Recalibrating educational gears through entrepreneurship education” focused on how entrepreneurship education can empower students to turn their ideas into actions. — VNS