Two young Vietnamese engineers have won the top honor in a prestigious Japanese chipset design contest called “Large Scale Integrated (LSI).”

Vietnamese engineers Luyen Duc Hanh ( L) and Tran Thi Hong recently beat out 26 international teams to win a chipset design contest in Japan (Photo: SGGP)

Tran Thi Hong and Luyen Duc Hanh, known as the “Little Chickens” team, are members of the Integrated Circuit Design Research & Education Center (ICDREC) under Vietnam National University Technology Park (VNU-ITP).

The pair, in their first ever participation in the event, defeated 26 international teams comprised of 103 members from several Asian countries to win top spot.

Hong came alone to Japan to take part in the contest, in Okinawa, while Hanh assisted via the Internet.

Ngo Duc Hoang, director of ICDREC, said contestants were tasked with designing a computer chip to transmit information. Hong designed the chip in two different ways with assistance from Hanh, which impressed the judges and secured their first-place finish.

LSI, an annual competition for post-graduates from the Asia-Pacific region, was initiated in 1997 by Kyushu Emiconductor Innovation in Japan. Three top teams were selected for the finals.

Hong is from a poor family in the central province of Quang Tri, but despite the odds, she never gave up on her studies, proving that Vietnamese engineers can rival their foreign counterparts.