MANILA – The three-member Vietnamese team, EDMTDevDTU, from Duy Tân University in Đà Nẵng City competed in the Southeast Asia regional finals of Microsoft Imagine Cup 2017 in Manila, the Philippines.

The skill-based competition, run by software giant Microsoft, wrapped up on Tuesday with Team CIMOL from Indonesia beating the other nine participating teams to the top prize.

The first runner-up and second runner-up places were awarded to Team HeartSound from Singapore and Team Opticode from the Philippines, respectively.

The champion and two runners-up of the first-ever Imagine Cup Southeast Asia regional finals will take their innovations to the next level, to the Imagine Cup World Finals.

The Vietnamese team’s project is an app called Smart Chick, which uses applied machine learning technology to help farmers determine suitable breeding methods.

The data-driven approach will help farmers maintain the quality of poultry products being sold to customers. “Việt Nam’s chicken-breeding industry faces several problems. The method of breeding is not standardised – farmers raise chickens in traditional ways, and these methods are based on habits,” the team said.

In addition, there are no specific standards for breeding and marketing of livestock, making it difficult to establish an effective yet high-quality method of breeding. Consumers are also worried about the origin and hygiene of the food source, according to the team.

“Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology will help farmers manage their individual livestock, and help consumers track information on the products they have purchased,” the team said.

“Students are asked to create an original technology product from start to finish – from ideation and planning, to building the project and making it an actual product. In the previous years, teams competed in the Games, Innovation or World Citizenship categories; however, for 2017, all categories have been removed, allowing any big idea to be a qualified entry, with the only requirement being that the teams must integrate Microsoft Azure into their products,” said Vũ Minh Trí, general director of Microsoft Việt Nam.

Trí said products such as Smart Chick, which helps resolve the issue of breeding, would be useful as Việt Nam is promoting the development of hi-tech agriculture.

In the local final round in Việt Nam, all six selected projects focused on the fourth revolution, and four of the projects developed the Internet of Things (IoT) in the agriculture sector.

“We will complete Smart Chick and bring the application to the market to help transform the country’s breeding system towards intelligent agriculture,” the team said.

The team believes that in addition to getting technological support from Microsoft, they will be successful in establishing a start-up and attracting investors so that they can launch the product in the local market in the first phase.

To be held in Seattle this July, the World Finals will see around 50 student teams from across the world vying for the top prize of US$100,000; mentorship opportunities with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; and Azure grants and credits to bring their winning innovation to the market. — VNS