The names of the winners of the Vietnamese Talents Awards 2012 will be made public at a ceremony in Hanoi at 8pm tonight, November 19.

Last year’s award ceremony

The event, the eighth of its kind, will be held at Viet Xo Cultural Friendship Palace, and broadcast live on VTV.

Vietnamese Talents Awards is jointly held by Dantri/DTiNews, Vietnam Television and VNPT.

According to Prof cum Academician Nguyen Van Hieu, one of the judges, the contest has gathered together several prestigious works so far.

This year’s event attracted entries from three categories of information technology, applied sciences and health.

For the IT sector, awards for finalists have been divided into two categories: products that have already being successfully applied, and those with great potential for application. Each group will have one first prize worth VND100million (USD4,793), one second prize valued at VND50 million (USD2,396) and one third prize worth VND30 million (USD1,438), along with gifts from sponsors.

The IT sector of the contest has drawn around 220 innovative products submitted by 367 candidates. Do Nhat Nam, 11, from Hanoi was the youngest, while Pham Quoc Van, 79, from Hai Duong Province was the oldest.

The panel of primary judges has selected 14 IT finalists including Classbook, an e-book solution to support students and teachers in fulfilling their tasks; VISQUA, software that allows users to compress and re-size photos while ensuring their quality; VIS or Viet voice Serve that fosters direct and natural interaction between clients and a switchboard; S-Bike, an alarm device to alert owners of vehicle theft by mobile phone, among others.

Some other IT finalists are DROC or Digital Radiography Operation Console; BIDV@SECURITIES, an online payment portal; and an online software system for the administration of e-students and their records.

The judges include leading prestigious experts, such as Prof cum Academician Nguyen Van Hieu, who is chairman of the panel of final judges and Dr Nguyen Long, General Secretary of the Vietnam Informatics Association, who is vice chairman of the panel.

Other judges were experts from VNPT’s Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Technology, the Science Council for State IT Programme, University of Technology under Vietnam National University – Hanoi, Institute of Information Technology, Hanoi Association of Informatics and Telecommunication, and University of Natural Science under Vietnam National University – HCM City.

This year's event was organised with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Health.

The main sponsor was Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), along with a number of partners, such as Vingroup, An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBank), Vina Megastar Group Joint Stock Company and Jetstar Pacific.

Pham Huy Hoan, Editor in Chief of Dantri/DTiNews, and Head of the organising board speaks at the launching on May 7

Nguyen Manh Cam, Chairman of the Vietnam Study Encouragement Association, third from the left, at the launching on May 7

Sponsors meet to make the event possible

Guests answering questions about this year’s awards

The judges at work

The organising board announces primary results on October 24

Representatives from the panels of judges check a product

Nguyen Van Hieu and Dr. Nguyen Long on a day of selection of finalists

An author making his presentation on November 17