Two Vietnamese high school students have been honored in a national innovation contest for creating a pair of ‘smart glasses’ for visually impaired people.

Tu Uyen and Thu Tuyet from Bui Thi Xuan High School, in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, have won first prize at the Social Innovation (SOIN) Challenge 2017 for their prototypie pair of smart glasses for the blind.

Launched in mid-September last year, the SOIN event attracted inventions from across Vietnam.

The competition was split into two categories: for adults (SOIN Unlimited) and for high school students (SOIN Junior).

The high school category results were announced on January 13.

Uyen and Tuyet’s glasses integrate both GPS and smartphone technology, and passed two rounds of judging, called “Conversing with Investors” and “Conversing with Costumers,” whereby all candidates answered questions relating to their inventions.

The second prize was shared by a group of students named Mr. HANDY from Lao Cai Province, in northwestern Vietnam, who created an app that provides nutritional menus for children under five, and WAVE, a group of students from Hanoi, who created an app that facilitates interaction between teachers, students and parents.

The third prize was awarded to three ideas, one which involves a wrist band able to warn parents of potential accidents and emotional instability in autistic children; a youth center where children are stimulated to be creative via the production of models and handmade items; and finally to an idea centered on the conversion of organic waste into biofertilizers.

The high-school section of SOIN Challenge 2017, jointly organized by Wellspring International Bilingual School and the not-for-profit Center for Social Initiatives Promotion, aimed to find inventions and ideas that deal with pressing social and environmental issues in Vietnam.

The ultimate purpose, however, was to sharpen students’ awareness of their community, and their sense of social responsibility, Le Tue Minh, the Wellspring’s director, was quoted by VietNamNet as saying.

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