Students from the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH) won Second Prize at EPICS 8, an international engineering competition bringing together leading technical universities across Vietnam.

The final round of the 8th Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS 8) competition took place on May 8, 2025, at Cao Thang Technical College, gathering 24 teams from prominent engineering and technology universities nationwide.

The IUH team and Dr. Lê Ngọc Trân, supervising lecturer (center), with the project “AQUAculture AIoT-based Management System for Avoiding Fatal Events” (Aqua Aim Safe), which won Second Prize at EPICS 8. The team consisted of students from Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, demonstrating an interdisciplinary spirit and a strong orientation toward practical solutions.
 

EPICS 8 is a prestigious experiential learning program and competition jointly implemented by Arizona State University (ASU) and the STEM Program of Dow Vietnam.

This year’s competition attracted 24 teams from leading engineering and technology universities across Vietnam.
Among the eight universities selected to participate in the Dow STEM program, IUH stood out as one of the institutions with both many participating teams and strong project quality. The University sent four project teams under the guidance of three lecturers: Dr. Lê Ngọc Trân (Head of the EPICS IUH Group, Department of Mechatronics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, IUH), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Khoa Triều and Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thanh Tiến.

Competition teams and supervising lecturers at EPICS 8.
 

One notable feature of EPICS 8 was that all presentations before the international judging panel were conducted entirely in English. This required students to demonstrate not only technical expertise but also systems thinking and strong academic presentation and debate skills.

  
IUH students confidently presenting and responding to judges’ questions entirely in English.

 
Following the evaluation round, IUH had two teams ranked among the Top 10 outstanding teams. In the results, IUH won Second Prize overall, while First Prize and Third Prize were awarded to teams from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

Notably, IUH’s award-winning project, “AQUAculture AIoT-based Management System for Avoiding Fatal Events” (Aqua Aim Safe), is an aquaculture management system applying artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things to prevent serious incidents in aquaculture farming. The interdisciplinary team, composed of Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Engineering students, clearly demonstrated the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration highly valued by the EPICS program, connecting engineering solutions with real-world community issues.

Many aquaculture households suffer severe losses from mass fish and shrimp deaths, often due to sudden fluctuations in water quality parameters. This is especially harmful at night when monitoring is limited.
Team representative Thang Nhật Huy (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, IUH) shared:
“Our team developed an automated monitoring system capable of timely warning and intervention. The system continuously monitors and displays water environmental parameters.
 It sends alerts to mobile phones and automatically activates aeration systems when necessary. This solution helps farmers control water quality, detect abnormalities early, and minimize production risks.”

Participating in EPICS provided students with an opportunity to apply knowledge to practical problems and address real-life challenges. In the field of water environment monitoring, which requires multidisciplinary expertise, the combination of Mechatronics and Environmental Engineering knowledge yielded a highly applicable solution for sustainable development.

Under the supervision of Dr. Lê Ngọc Trân, the student team developed a solution emphasizing applicability, safety, and sustainability in aquaculture, one of Vietnam’s key economic sectors.

The team received a cash prize of USD 300 along with certificates from Arizona State University and the international STEM program.
However, according to supervising lecturers, the greatest value lay not in the award itself, but in the international academic experience: working in a highly competitive environment, presenting before foreign judges, and defending ideas in academic English.

Dr. Lê Ngọc Trân stated: “IUH's selection as one of the eight major engineering universities participating in the program reflects recognition of the University’s training capacity and spirit of innovation. Notably, in 2024, IUH also won First Prize at EPICS, creating a continuous streak of achievements at this competition.”

As a competition that gathers the country’s leading engineering universities, EPICS continues to recognize IUH not only through concrete achievements but, more importantly, through the confidence of its students as they step into the international academic environment.
Some highlights of the competition: