Achievements

DTU students once again demonstrated their skill, intellect and tireless creativity with their highly practical technology. With their SmartChick project, the EMDTDevDTU team, consisting of Nguyen Tran Hoang Linh from IT, Le Viet Trieu from the International School and Nguyen Huy Luat, from the Danang University of Technology Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, beat six other strong Vietnamese teams to win the 2017 National Microsoft Imagine Cup. They will now represent Vietnam in the 2017 Imagine Cup Asia-Pacific Finals on April 23rd. The second prize went to the Nano Farm project, and the third to Packn’Go by the 101Studio team.

 

The competition has been organized by Microsoft annually for the past fifteen years and is world’s most prestigious student technology competition, bringing together student innovators from all over the world.   

 

 

SmartChick is a system to breed chickens more efficiently, using the IoT, Internet of Things app and Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning to simplify and optimize the breeding and care of the chickens. A small microchip, attached to the leg of the chicken, allows the breeder to collect and monitor its health, diseases, egg production and so on. The system also controls feed volume to optimize chicken nutrition, automatically sprays water, and cleans the water and feed systems. It permits the chickens to exercise on the spot, improves meat quality, reduces diseases and reduces time and work for the breeder. 

 

Le Viet Trieu said: “Breeding is an important aspect of farming in all Asian countries. However, the quality of farm products, food safety and hygiene do still not meet international requirements. By applying Microsoft’s advanced technology to optimize the breeding and care of chickens, the SmartChick project will help breeders to improve the quality of chickens, save cost and control diseases more efficiently”.

 

The Nano Farm project arose to satisfy the requirements of people living in the city center who want to grow vegetables at home using hydroponics, minimizing space and work. Nano Farm was developed by Phan Hong Sang, from the DTU Faculty of Information Technology, Nguyen Ngo Anh Quang from Electrical Engineering and Le Dinh Ngoc, from the Danang University of Science and Technology Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. 

 

Nano Farm uses the Universal Windows Platform and can be operated from a smartphone or PC. It also integrates other advanced Microsoft technologies and sensors to gather and provide the data the vegetable grower requires. The system continuously monitors the vegetables, automatically providing them with nutrients and watering them.  It also sends an alarm when the crops are endangered and estimates when they can best be harvested. Nano Farm monitors home vegetable gardens via the internet and creates a social media page where users can share their results and experiences of running a farm at home with other hobbyists.

 

Through their creative ideas and effective use of advanced Microsoft technologies, DTU students can solve the issue of providing people with new sources of clean, fresh food to benefit the overall health of the community.