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 junior high school and high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.

According to the decision, the Ministry of Education and Training cancels the first prize and revokes 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 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 of Education and Training before April 30.

Previously, Tuoi Tre Online received information reflecting that the science and technology project "Smart waste classification system integrating artificial intelligence and sound sensors" by a group of two students from Nguyen Sieu High School (Hung Yen) had many similarities with a foreign product that had been announced.

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.

Specifically, there are opinions that the project of the group of students from Nguyen Sieu High School is "too similar" to a product that was announced by a foreign expert, Samuel Alexander, on the Hackaday.io community - an international online platform for the community of engineers, creators and technology enthusiasts, where they can share their engineering projects, inventions and research.

According to the reflection, at least three important images in the student group's presentation poster overlap with Samuel's original photo, including the circuit diagram, frequency chart and device structure image.

In principle, both models use sound sensors and AI to classify waste - a rare approach today.

Industry experts say the two models are “similar in core”, differing only in the level of technical perfection.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online , Mr. Le Thanh Tuan, principal of Nguyen Sieu High School, said that the project "Smart waste classification system integrating artificial intelligence and sound sensors" by a group of two students was researched and implemented for about 1 year.

In order for the project to be entered into the national competition, it had to go through many rounds of selection at the school and Hung Yen provincial levels.

"Every day, teachers remind us not to classify used batteries in the right place, not to put trash neatly... because each class only has one trash can. From there, the students came up with the idea, researched, and created a simple waste classification model to make things more convenient, and to make use of usable waste," said Mr. Tuan about the project idea.