[FIRST] Opening of Hackathon Vietnam 2014

Beginning in the morning of August 1st, the Hackathon Vietnam 2014 contest took place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City under the organization of FIRST Project, Formation 8 venture capital firm in collaboration with Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) and 5Desire, with FIRST Project as the sponsor for the first prizes.

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Beginning in the morning of August 1st, the Hackathon Vietnam 2014 contest took place in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City under the organization of FIRST Project, Formation 8 venture capital firm in collaboration with Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) and 5Desire, with FIRST Project as the sponsor for the first prizes. 

Hackathon Vietnam 2014 was launched in June, 2014 and attracted the attention of nearly 1000 candidates, many of them are talented engineers and scientists in Vietnam. Over the course of over 1 month, the organizers selected 400 talented individuals to participate in the 23-hour contest in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. During this event, the contestants formed groups of maximum 4 members to continuously program in the 23-hour timeframe and 1 winning team was selected for each location.

Participants of the contest 

During his opening speech in Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Quan - Minister of Science and Technology expressed his special interest in this event and  highly appreciated the enthusiastic contribution of organizations and individuals such as Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, Prof. Duong Nguyen Vu, Formation 8, 5Desire, etc. He hoped that the Hackathon Vietnam 2014 contest would discover young talents with innovative ideas to share with the international community the image of an active, innovative Vietnam that is developing based on knowledge, science and technology. The Ministry of Science and Technology would continue to authorize the organization of Hackathon Vietnam in the next years and hoped that this event would become the gathering place of the young innovative community in Vietnam.

Minister Nguyen Quan delivering his opening speech

The competition started at 13.00pm on August 1st and lasted until 12.00pm on August 2nd. After all the competing teams delivered their presentations on their products in front of the judges and other teams, at 17.00pm on August 2nd the organizers announced the 2 winning teams who were awarded with tickets to Silicon Valley.