RMIT students mark Vietnam’s first win at D&AD New Blood Quickfire competition

RMIT students mark Vietnam’s first win at D&AD New Blood Quickfire competition

Three RMIT Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication) students Quach Tan An, Nguyen Le Duy and Pham Quang Vinh were named the runner-up at the prestigious global D&AD New Blood Quickfire competition 2021 for their IBM Smart Repair idea – an app to help extend phone lifespans and reduce e-waste.

news-1-rmit-students-mark-the-first-vietnam-win-at-dad-new-blood-quickfire Three RMIT Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication) students mark the first Vietnam win at D&AD New Blood Quickfire.

For 2021 D&AD New Blood Quickfire brief, IBM invited emerging creatives to design a digital product or service for the fashion, food, or electronics industries. The product had to explore how one of these industries could develop their own circular economies – keeping sustainability at its heart and using the latest technology.

The ‘eureka’ moment came to the team while they were having their own devices repaired.

“Visiting local service spots is such a common practice here, but there remains certain doubt about their competence,” team member Nguyen Le Duy said.

“Customers are not always confident in the quality of repair parts, and many times they leave displeased as the store simply cannot carry out their requested repair due to lack of knowledge or components.

“As heavy smartphone users ourselves, we’ve had our fair share of bad experiences and felt there needed to be a change in order for these small repair shops to play into the greater circular economy.”

With this problem in mind, the team began searching potential in IBM’s products to see how they can lend a helping hand to the local repair shops.

“Our vision is to create a sustainable local repair store network that makes repairing and reusing electronics more accessible for end-users,” Duy shared.

“Independent repair stores greatly outnumber brand service centres, especially in developing countries, yet their technical capacity and reputation seem to lag far behind.

“Thus, we see connecting local repair stores and electronics brands for direct manufacturer support as a way to enhance their capabilities and leverage their untapped potential.” 

news-2-rmit-students-mark-the-first-vietnam-win-at-dad-new-blood-quickfire From left to right: Nguyen Le Duy, Quach Tan An, Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication) lecturer Dr Soumik Parida, and Pham Quang Vinh

Thanks to the student-centred and work integrated learning approach that RMIT University in Vietnam has adapted and implemented for years as well as the support from lecturers with rich industry experience, the team overcame multiple challenges they encountered along the way.

“The invaluable experience we have acquired during our time at RMIT allows us to approach the IBM brief strategically with an industry mindset,” Duy said.

“While we were confusingly working out a problem in the electronics sector [the team’s chosen sector for the IBM brief] that was specific yet wide-ranging enough for us to solve, our lecturers stepped in and suggested we find problems that might not be so obvious or serious at first but can have a huge impact on the circular economy if they are solved,” Duy shared about the challenges the team had to overcome.

“This ultimately led us to identify our key problem - the unsustainability of the local electronics repair industry of Vietnam and other developing countries.”

Being unssuccessful at their first attempt in 2020, the team gave it another try and achieved the proud result of being the first Vietnamese winning team.

Apart from the prize of 250 GBP, the students also potentially have their work commissioned, or to earn a placement with IBM.

news-3-rmit-students-mark-the-first-vietnam-win-at-dad-new-blood-quickfire The D&AD New Blood Quickfire runner-up entry – IBM Smart Repair, an app to help extend phone lifespans and reduce e-waste.

“Cracking the IBM brief has enlightened me with the immense value of observation, which is to really take a closer look at those around you, at those we are communicating with so as to distil insightful solutions to their life problems,” team member Pham Quang Vinh shared.

Whereas Quach Tan An saw the IBM brief as an opportunity to acknowledge the importance of the combination of humanity and AI in our modern age.

“I believe that humanity and AI is a perfect combination to tackle human being’s problems,” he said.

“With a human-centric mindset, we can deeply engage with the target audience and better understand their pain points, thus proposing the most relevant solutions to address their problems. AI alongside can help us more effectively implement and optimise our solutions.”

Now being back with the busyness of a university student’s life, Duy enthusiastically admitted that “the prize motivates us to further develop our creativity by entering more competitions and using the creativity to give back and make impacts on the society”.

Story: Ha Hoang

13 December 2021

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