Undergraduate

Down from more than 240 teams with over a thousand students from nine countries, the sixteen top-performing teams gathered at Duy Tan University (DTU, Danang) to compete in the ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 finals. Beyond seeking innovative AI solutions, the contest created a space for young people in ASEAN to learn together, connect, and turn technology into solutions to shared regional challenges.

Sixteen breakthrough solutions from over 240 entries

The education organization Passage to ASEAN (P2A), in collaboration with DTU, organized the ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 (AAIH 2026) at DTU from August 19 to 21, 2026 with the theme “AI for a Resilient ASEAN: Innovation, Sustainability, and Humanity”. The competition placed students at the center of the innovation journey, where AI was not only studied and researched but also applied to address community challenges.

Dr. Valenzuela, P2A Board of Advisors and Chair of the ASEAN AI Council, speaking at the closing ceremony of AAIH 2026

The ASEAN region is accelerating the development of its digital economy, with the goal of reaching the trillion-USD scale by 2030, thereby promoting sustainable growth, strengthening resilience, and laying the foundation for a prosperous ASEAN. Along this journey, ASEAN is also facing pressing challenges: how to respond to climate change, improving healthcare, developing smart cities, and building future-ready education systems.

“The theme of the ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 is ‘AI for a Resilient ASEAN: Innovation, Sustainability, and Humanity’,” said Dr. Le Nguyen Tue Hang, Director-General of the P2A Secretariat, DTU Vice Provost, and head of the organizing committee. “This is more than just a theme: it’s a call to action. It’s also a place for young people to learn, innovate, and turn potential into real-world impact. Artificial intelligence is no longer a story about the future. AI is here and now, transforming industry, reshaping society, and helping determine ASEAN’s future. So the real question is: who will shape AI? and the answer is very clear: the students themselves.

“We organized this competition with a deep belief that when guided by ethical values, a humanist spirit, and regional cooperation, AI can help address some of the most pressing challenges we face - from sustainable development and climate change adaptation to promoting growth and ensuring digital equity. The student projects submitted to this competition from across ASEAN go beyond ideas; they can become solutions that are truly useful to people, serve communities, and help shape the future of ASEAN.”

Hero of Labor and Meritorious Teacher Le Cong Co, co-founder of P2A

and DTU Chairman, shared his vision of the role of young people in mastering AI

Sixteen outstanding ideas by as many teams from seven countries - Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Singapore - were selected for the finals at DTU to compete for the championship. The projects demonstrated the students’ diverse approaches to real-world challenges in education, healthcare, the environment, and smart cities. They highlighted the creativity and the ability to fully grasp problems of ASEAN’s young generation, and their aspiration to develop solutions.

Young ASEAN talent tackle issues with AI

Unlike competitions that stop at the idea stage, the ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 required teams to start with real-world problems and develop their products through multiple stages - from ideas and prototypes to demos - while presenting and defending their solutions before a panel of experts. What the projects had in common was not technological complexity, but their feasibility and applicability under the often restrictive real-world conditions found across ASEAN countries.

The AAIH 2026 also created a space for young people across ASEAN

to learn together, connect, and turn technology into solutions to shared regional challenges

“Many ASEAN countries have developed national AI policies, roadmaps, and plans,” explained Dr. Ethel Valenzuela, P2A Board of Advisors and Chair of the ASEAN AI Council, former Education Advisor at the ASEAN Secretariat and governing board member of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. “Some countries began implementing AI policies early on, such as Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Vietnam also has big plans to become an ASEAN AI hub. We have many young people participating in the digital world and using technology in every aspect of their lives. We therefore need to develop young talent through hackathons and other contests where students can innovate and showcase their products to the world.”

Ahead of the finals, the sixteen teams made every effort to complete the final stages of their projects - from product testing and solution optimization to preparing their presentations and defenses for the competition at DTU.

“I believe the ASEAN AI Hackathon is a very clear testament to this direction,” said Hero of Labor and Meritorious Teacher Le Cong Co, co-founder of P2A and DTU Chairman. “Today’s students do more than learn about AI; they put it to use, experiment with it, master it, and use it to solve real-world problems. When students from ASEAN countries come together on the same platform, share knowledge, and work together to find solutions to shared challenges, we are not only creating technological products but also developing a new generation of workers for ASEAN.”

Celebrating ASEAN’s young talent and creating a launch pad for AI startups

The closing and awards ceremony of the ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 officially took place at DTU on the morning of August 21, 2026. The top teams were announced, marking not only the end of a journey of hard work and achievements to be proud of, but also an affirmation of the boldness in thought and deed of ASEAN’s young people and of their aspiration to apply technology to real-world challenges.

CIT-U Shane-nanigans (Cebu Institute of Technology-University, Philippines), outstandingly won the championship

The highest prizes went to the following outstanding teams:

    champion: CIT-U Shane-nanigans (Cebu Institute of Technology-University, Philippines),
    second: UI-WICARA ASEAN (University of Indonesia, Indonesia) and UM-Gunners (University of Malaya, Malaysia),
    third: PUPQ-Hackbigans (Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines), DTU-AEGISFLOW AI (DTU, Vietnam), and CU-PaiRai (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand).

DTU-AEGISFLOW AI from DTU won third prize at AAIH 2026

Special awards were presented to recognize the teams’ distinctive achievements in creativity, presentation skills, commitment to sustainable development, and community impact:

    most-innovative award: PUP-ATLAN (Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippines),
    best-presentation award: AUPP-RehabAI (American University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia),
    green-solution award: ITE-AwareGuard ITE (Institute of Technical Education, Singapore),
    people’s choice award: DNTU-CruzrTwin ASEAN (Dong Nai Technology University, Vietnam).
 

Outstanding teams were honored at the AAIH 2026 closing and awards ceremony

A representative of the CIT-U Shane-nanigans team from the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (Philippines) speaks about the emotional moment when they won the AAIH 2026 championship: “Beyond having us create a solution, the competition also gave our entire team valuable experiences and lessons. What we learned about technical expertise, teamwork, presentation, and defending our ideas will be important as we continue developing the project. After our memorable moment today, we’re determined to transform our competition project into a practical solution that can be applied in everyday life. First, we’ll begin implementing the project at home in the Philippines. After that, we hope to gradually expand the solution to other ASEAN countries to create a broader impact across the region.”

Xuan Nhi of the third-prize winning team DTU–AEGISFLOW AI from DTU explains: “As students from the host university, we were very happy to compete and at the same time to welcome, interact with, and work alongside students from many ASEAN countries. Each team has a different approach, so the competition brought us a chance for new knowledge, perspectives, and ways of thinking while also training our teamwork and presentation skills, and our ability to defend our ideas before experts.”

Dr. Nguyen Khanh Linh, Head of international cooperation and communications at the National Innovation Center (NIC, of the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance), said: “The ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 brought together many experts from different fields from government agencies, universities, and businesses. We were truly impressed by the depth of knowledge of the students on the many teams. They understood the problems well and knew how to apply many advanced technologies and AI applications to develop solutions. Some teams even demonstrated the ability to leverage language models quite well to address the challenges presented. We are therefore very proud of the participating teams and students in this year’s competition.”

The ASEAN AI Hackathon 2026 officially came to a close with a meaningful kickoff ceremony led by leaders and experts, officially opening a promising new chapter: ASEAN AI Hackathon 2027.

(Media Center)