Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, on the evening of August 20 announced five winners at the final round of the Qualcomm Vietnam Innovation Challenge (QVIC), held as part of the InnoEx Business Innovation Forum in Ho Chi Minh City.
Winning a total of 255,000 USD, the solutions are innovative AI applications developed by Vietnamese startups in areas including edge computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and healthcare.
Naiscorp Robotics won first prize and 100,000 USD for its family companion robot using Edge AI, designed to support elderly care globally.
Tensor won second prize and 75,000 USD for its solution on promoting sustainable poultry farming through an AI-powered method for determining the sex of embryos in eggs.
VEEP took third prize and 50,000 USD for its cloud-based energy management solution using AIoT to reduce energy waste in buildings.
AIZ JSC, with its comprehensive AI enterprise platform integrating unified data, a digital workforce and intelligent process automation, and Openmind Robotics, with its advancing logistics automation through embodied robotics, each received an Innovation Award worth 15,000 USD.
Addressing the event, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Minh spoke highly of QVIC’s growing reach beyond startups to research teams, university projects and spin-off companies. This, he said, is how science, technology and innovation can genuinely create value, by bringing ideas and research outcomes to market and turning them into products, businesses and new sources of value for Vietnam’s economy.
ST Liew, Vice President and President of Qualcomm’s Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand region, said the outstanding quality of this year’s finalists demonstrated the capabilities of Vietnam’s workforce, its entrepreneurial spirit and the rapid development of its deep-tech ecosystem.
Commenting on the quality of the solutions showcased at the competition, Sudeepto Roy, Qualcomm’s Vice President of Engineering, said the 15 teams reaching the final round of QVIC reflects both the breadth and growing maturity of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem. A key highlight is the diversity of on-device AI applications, spanning robotics, drones and enterprise AI to smart infrastructure, healthcare, climate technology, semiconductors and financial technology, he noted.
According to Roy, over its six-year journey, QVIC has supported 80 startups, with their innovations leading to more than 200 patent applications in Vietnam and globally. He said Qualcomm is also pleased that more than 1,300 innovators has completed the free online L2Pro Vietnam intellectual property training programme. This year, the company is continuing to add a new entrepreneurship course to help founders turn inventions into scalable businesses.
Launched in 2019, QVIC has supported innovative startups through a broad range of benefits, including technical and business incubation, patent-filing incentives and expert mentoring. The programme promotes Vietnam’s emerging technology ecosystem by identifying and nurturing innovative small- and medium-sized enterprises developing products in key technology fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing, 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, smart cities and automotive technology, while leveraging Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced mobile platforms and technologies./.
VNA
