The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued a decision to cancel the first prize results of the national science and technology research competition for middle and high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.

According to the decision, the Ministry of Education and Training canceled the first prize and revoked the award and certificate of the project "Smart waste classification system integrating artificial intelligence and sound sensors", embedded system field, the participating unit is the Department of Education and Training of Hung Yen province.

The Ministry of Education and Training also requested the Department of Education and Training of Hung Yen province to strictly handle groups and individuals violating current regulations and report to the Ministry before April 30. The Ministry of Education and Training's decision did not give a reason.

Previously, as VietNamNet reported, at this year's national Science and Technology (S&T) research competition for high school students, the project of Smart waste sorting system integrating artificial intelligence and sound sensors by the group of students Vu Ngoc Anh and Vu Dinh Dang Hien (Nguyen Sieu High School, Hung Yen province) won first prize. This is one of 12 projects awarded first prize by the Ministry of Education and Training on March 24, at the closing ceremony and award ceremony of the National Science and Technology Competition for the 2024-2025 school year.

However, right after the competition ended, many sources said that this project was similar to a product of foreign expert Samuel Alexander (Indonesia) published on the Hackaday.io community before.

The system of the Nguyen Sieu school group includes the following main devices: Microcontroller integrated with sound sensor; motor to open the trash can lid; motor to rotate the trash compartments; mechanical parts of the product (trash can, trash compartment, surrounding metal frame).

The operating principle of the smart trash can is that when trash is put in, the system listens to the sound of the trash colliding with the edge of the bin and will analyze and classify the sound of the corresponding types of trash, such as paper, plastic, metal and others.

After the garbage is classified, the motor control unit rotates the garbage bin to the corresponding garbage bin and the motor opens the garbage bin lid to let the garbage fall into the bin.

At that time, a representative of the General Education Department (Ministry of Education and Training) said: "This is an open competition, so post-competition inspection is also a task of the organizing committee and we are doing this work. Through the inspection, if any violations are discovered, the Ministry of Education and Training and the competition organizing committee will strictly handle them according to the competition regulations and other regulations of the industry."

Regarding the project that won first prize in the 2025 National Science and Technology Competition and was accused of being similar to a foreign product, the Ministry of Education and Training said it would inspect and, if violations were discovered, would be strictly handled according to the competition regulations and other regulations of the industry.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/bo-gd-dt-huy-giai-nhat-du-an-khoa-hoc-ky-thuat-cua-hoc-sinh-bi-to-sao-chep-2396578.html