Vietnam garnered the first prize at a robotics competition for children that closed on the weekend in the Philippines.

Dr Nguyen Tuan Hoa, a member of the Vietnamese delegation, told Tuoi Tre on Sunday that students from Nguyen Binh Khiem Elementary School, located in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1, won the Apprentice category of the Digital Youth Award Robotics for Children 2013 (DYA2013) held one day earlier in Manila.

DYA2013 is an annual technological and educational competition providing an applied information technology and science platform for children.

Vietnam sent 24 teams to compete in the Apprentice and Veteran categories with 46 other squads from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the host Philippines.

DYA2013 competitors were divided into three categories: Apprentice (age 6-9), Veteran (9-12) and Expert (11-18).

The theme of the competition was “Smart Cities”, which required participants to handle issues forecast to arise in urban areas in the next few decades, such as natural disasters, living costs, crime, transportation, education, and other challenges.

Competing teams had to assemble and program robots that could deal successfully with these problems to turn their respective cities into “Smart Cities.”