Vietnamese team “Catfish”, made up of teammates Hoa Phung and Thinh Nguyen from RMIT University Vietnam, claimed first place at the Regional finals of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers 2020 (ADSE 2020), which recently took place in an online format.

Hoa Phung and Thinh Nguyen from RMIT University Vietnam claim first place at
the Regional finals of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers 2020 (ADSE 2020).

During the competition, the pair presented their project which focused on the statement of “People with Disability: Unblocking the Economic Bottleneck”.

Team Halcyon Seraph, comprising of Koay Tze Min and Ng Yi Ming from the National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS College, respectively, finished in first runner-up position. Their presentation was themed around “ASEAN Women-UP Township Network”.

Elsewhere, Team Psyduck, made up of Oscar Fang Jack Ling and Quah Chun Meng from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia took second runner-up spot. At the event, the pair presented a project that focused on “Digital Integration, the Key to Growth”.

Addressing the awards ceremony, Thomas Zipperle, chief financial officer of SAP Southeast Asia, stressed that the ADSE programme serves to demonstrate the cultural diversity that SAP aims to celebrate, whilst also embracing the ASEAN region.

“Digital skills are essential for the workforce of today and the future. SAP Analytics Cloud aims to bridge the digital gap in ASEAN and empower youths to create sustainable innovations to address socio-economic issues," Zipperle added.

In response, Yang Mee Eng, executive director of the ASEAN Foundation, said that both the ASEAN Foundation and SAP share the common objective of providing young people with future-proof skills. It is hoped that by educating the youth, it will enable them to thrive in an ever-changing world and will ultimately support the theme of Vietnam’s ASEAN Chairmanship, which is building a “Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN”.

A total of 852 proposals were submitted as part of this year’s competition. Judges then evaluated each entrant based on their ability to collect, analyse, and present data, as well as the concepts which best tackle ASEAN socio-economic issues.

Starting in 2017, ASEAN DSE is a collaboration scheme that is held annually between the ASEAN Foundation and SAP.

The scheme serves as a reliable avenue for young people in ASEAN to improve their data analytical skills whilst bringing about greater digital inclusion in the region. It has also empowered up to 16,309 students and 1,420 lecturers from 370 institutions across ASEAN through data science skills.