Vietnam’s “Little Chickens” group defeated 26 international teams to win first prize in its first time at the prestigious chipset design contest in Japan called “Large Scale Integrated” (LSI).  

Two engineers from the HCM City National University’s Centre for Chipset Design Research and Design, Tran Thi Hong and Luyen Duc Hanh, were members of the Little Chickens.

Hong said that this year’s topic was designing Bose, Chaudri, Hocquenguem chipsets based on Galois, HDL and Synopsys techniques. Hong has not studied the Gaulois algorithm yet, so she had to learn it on her own using the Internet. Hong’s designs were tested by Hanh and the two needed seven weeks to finish.

At the last minute, the Japanese organizers announced they could sponsor only one member to come to Japan so Hong went alone while Hanh stayed behind and assisted Hong via email.

“This is first time I went abroad, so I was quite nervous. I went to Japan alone while other teams have several members. But I was confident because I prepared very carefully,” Hong explained.

The 24-year-old girl made her presentation in English and gave excellent answers to the questions of the jury, winning first prize.

Hong is seeking a Master’s in electronic technology at the HCM City National University. She has won many prizes at sci-tech competitions in HCM City when she was a university student.

LSI is an annual competition for post-graduates from the Asia-Pacific region, initiated in 1997 by the Kyushu Emiconductor Innovation in Japan. This event is sponsored by famous chipset design groups in the world like Synopsys, Xilinx, Tokyo Electron Device and Renesas.

This year the competition attracted 27 teams with 103 members from many Asian countries. The top three teams were selected for the finals.

On March 19, the organizing board presented first prize to Vietnam’s Little Chickens and second and third prizes to four teams from Japan.