Student project accused of resembling foreign products

At the closing ceremony and award ceremony of the National Science and Technology Research Competition for middle and high school students in the 2024-2025 school year, the project "Smart waste classification system integrating artificial intelligence and sound sensors" by the student group Vu Ngoc Anh - Vu Dinh Dang Hien, Nguyen Sieu High School (Hung Yen province), won first prize.

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. Both products are said to use sound signals to classify waste. This system is trained to recognize and classify waste by analyzing the sound of garbage colliding with bins to make different noises...

The system of the group of students from Nguyen Sieu High School includes the main devices: a microcontroller integrated with a sound sensor, a motor to open the trash can lid, a motor to rotate the trash compartments, and 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 analyzes and classifies the sound of the corresponding types of trash, such as paper, plastic, metal and other types. After classifying the trash, the motor controls the trash compartment rotation to the corresponding trash compartment and the motor opens the trash compartment lid so that the trash falls into the compartment.

Responding to comments about the similarity between the products of the Nguyen Sieu High School students and those of foreign experts, Mr. Thai Van Tai, Director of the General Education Department - Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), said that the ministry has received information about this incident. He affirmed that this is an open competition, so the post-competition inspection is also a task of the organizing committee. "We are conducting the inspection. Through the inspection, if any violations are discovered, the MOET and the Organizing Committee of the competition will strictly handle them according to the competition regulations and other regulations of the industry" - Mr. Tai emphasized.

The competition took place from March 19 to 21 in Ho Chi Minh City, attracting 212 projects from 71 participating teams - an increase of 63 teams compared to 2024. This year's competition projects are in 22 fields, including: animal science, social and behavioral sciences, biochemistry, biomedical and health sciences, biomedical engineering, cell and molecular biology, chemistry, computational biology and bioinformatics, earth and environmental sciences, embedded systems, chemical energy...

Speaking at the award ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong noted that teachers need to support, help, and inspire students' passion for scientific and technical research. "Absolutely do not impose adult ideas or do things for or on behalf of students. The joy of creativity and learning originates from students and it is teachers who ignite that passion for creativity," the Deputy Minister emphasized.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/du-an-cua-hoc-sinh-bi-to-giong-san-pham-nuoc-ngoai-196250325205938155.htm