A group of students from the Da Nang University of Economics has won the top prize in the university-hosted Hult Prize for their mobile app exclusively for vegetarians called CHAY’S.

The team won the Hult Prize at Da Nang University of Economics competition for their CHAY'S app

Members of the winning team are Le Thi Bich Thuy and Nguyen Ha An, both majoring in International Business, Nguyen Le Nam Giang in Banking, and Tran Huyen Trang in Commercial Business.

Initially, the students registered for the competition with a corn milk project because they thought this kind of milk was a nutritious, easy-to-make, and quite cheap food.

They realised that corn milk was quite popular with Vietnamese people and there were many brands of corn milk on the domestic market when they attended training courses.

Still undeterred, the young people decided to change their project by developing a mobile app exclusively for vegetarians.

Ha An, a group member, said vegetarianism is becoming increasingly popular for many people because of the harm that some people believe meat can cause to the body. However, many beginners expressed their worries about vegetarian diet not meeting nutritional needs during all stages of life.

Fully aware of that fact, the talented students decided to create a CHAY'S app to support those who would like to become vegetarians but do not know where to begin.

This app offers healthy and well-planned vegetarian diets to different people depending on their ages, health conditions and nutrition needs.

As being asked for difficulties facing the group during the implementation of the project, Ha An said the most difficult thing was to learn about and synthesise nutrition-related knowledge from documentary sources at both home and overseas, as well as seek support and advices from domestic nutrition experts.

Nam Giang, another group member, said that, the contest offered an opportunity for her to study and cultivate practical and team-working skills in addition to the knowledge about the food industry and startups. Also, she could overcome the fear of making a presentation in English in front of a big crowd.

Thanks to its good idea and innovative business model, the CHAY’S app won the top prize in the Hult Prize at the Da Nang University of Economics in January 2021.

Of special note, this project has advanced to the 2021 Hult Prize Southeast Asia Regional finals to be scheduled to take place in April.

First held in 2009, the Hult Prize, referred to as the "Nobel Prize for students" by media outlets worldwide, is the world’s largest social impact competition. Run in partnership with the United Nations, student teams come together to compete to solve a pressing social issue by developing a scalable, sustainable social enterprise.

Within the framework of the Hult Prize, the Hult Prize on Campus programme has been organised in universities across Viet Nam since last year. The programme allows student leaders on campus to organise their own, localised version of the Hult Prize, using a turn-key tool kit.

As part of the Hult Prize on Campus programme, the so-called Hult Prize at UFLS was held in December 2020.

By PHONG LAN - Translated by M.D