The final round of the Targeted Innovation Challenge (TIC) 2016 contest took place at the Da Nang Entrepreneurship Support Company Ltd (DNES) on 10 December.

The HQT team introducing their product

The contest organisers, the Frontier Law and Advisory company, shared their ideas about environmental protection and the participating teams had to develop their own solutions.

By beating their rivals from the University of Science and Technology in Ha Noi and the Da Nang University of Technology and Science, team HQT from Da Nang’s Duy Tan University won the 1^st prize of 1,000 USD for their cryopreservation bags for storing tuna.

The members of HQT were Le Quang Thanh, Le Nhat Hung and Nguyen Ngo Anh Quan.  Before TIC 2016, they had gained outstanding achievements in such competitions as the Microsoft Imagine Cup Viet Nam 2016, the Startup UniTour 2016, and the Da Nang Robot-making Open Contest for High School Pupils (ROBODNIC) 2016.

By participating in TIC 2016, the HQT team wanted to create a product which helped enhance the quality and values of tuna, assisted the fishing activities related to this kind of fish, and to increase the incomes of local fishermen.  In addition, the product would help to enhance the effective management of tuna fishing activities in order to reduce illegal and excessive fishing, ensure sustainable development of the fisheries sector, and create a professional and reliable system for retrieving tuna information.

Le Quang Thanh, an HQT member, said “Taking inspiration from a cryopreservation bag and a helmet, we created a cryopreservation bag made of composite, the main material for creating crash helmet shells, in order to increase the durability of the bag.  In addition, our product is designed with recognisable colours.  The bag can float and either transmit light and sound SOS signals or send an SOS message via email and text message.  Interestingly, these bags can collect, process, and retrieve information about the tuna they contain in order to ensure the best storage conditions.”

Mr David Saiia, a representative from the contest organisers, said that the HQT team was praised for finding out a new way to store tuna in standard condition, and to retrieve information about the tuna. 

He also spoke highly about all the participating teams, and thanked them for their great efforts in completing their products.  This demonstrated the development of the science and technology sector in Da Nang, and in the whole of Viet Nam.