On January 21, DTU hosted the local 2019 Hult Prize finals. First prize went to "Worky”, a Smartphone job search application, a second to the “Eco-Tourism by the disabled” project and two third prizes to the “WorkSpace Sharing” app and the “Efix” app, used for identifying and repairing electrical household appliances. The top two DTU teams qualify for the Southeast Asia Regional Hult Prize competition, to be held in April in Ho Chi Minh city.
Dr. Vo Thanh Hai, head judge
The annual Hult Prize is sponsored by the UN and the Clinton Foundation as a Start-Up accelerator for budding young social entrepreneurs graduating from universities worldwide, to build and launch the practical and compelling ideas to tackle the many grave problems faced by billions every day. The competition was held at DTU for the first time and attracted a lot of creative young people interested in starting their own businesses and hoping to find investors to implement their projects.
Start-Up diversification
The DTU projects covered diverse fields, from technology, engineering, tourism and healthcare to education and social sciences. These included the “Smart Bed”, the “Smart electric energy data measurement and acquisition system”, the “WorkSpace”, “Efix”, “Eco-tourism by the disabled”, and the “Game model for skills development” applications, and the “DTUstudy” app, which identifies the best e-Learning training centers.
The "Worky” app won first prize
Excellent ideas
The “Worky” app was developed by Le Viet Do, Tran Thi Le Hoan, Nguyen Thi My Hanh and Trinh Cao Gia Huy, impressed the judges and was awarded first prize. With its user-friendly interface, “Worky” operates on a variety of mobile devices and operating systems.
Le Viet Do, a first year student of Marketing Management, said: “Normally students spend much of their spare time looking for part-time jobs. Our team developed Worky to allow job hunters to network with each other and match themselves quickly to the most appropriate occupations.”
The DTU “WorkSpace sharing” and “Efix” teams will now perfect their projects and move on to the Hult Prize SEA contest. The three best teams from each region worldwide will then attend an international training course in London from July 2 to August 31 and the leading six will then advance to the Hult Prize Global Finals at UN headquarters in New York on September 15.
(Media Center)