Manh Nguyen

Growing up in Vietnam, I always felt that computer science (CS) was undervalued in our pre-2018 curriculum. We were still using Pascal, a language from the '70s. The 2018–2019 education reform brought very welcoming changes, introducing Python and robotics, but also created a huge demand for teacher training and resources for students.

Over four years, through countless free workshops and competitions, our small team reached thousands of students and teachers—from bustling cities to misty mountain towns and even sunny seaside schools. We made robotics and CS accessible even where resources were limited, with our imagination in task design.

With one simple robot, given enough context, it could be a tree-planting machine, it could be autonomous cars, or it could be an adventurous painter.

Our workshops were initially hands-on; we needed to bring the robots to students so they could experiment and learn. The pandemic then changed everything. But a small tea break chat sparked our ideas to digitize our workshops, allowing students to still control real robots while they were staying at home.

While everyone is struggling with online learning, we made the impossible possible by transforming something so physically dependent into a fully digital experience.

My proudest moments aren’t tied to medals or headlines—they happen in those quiet, powerful flashes when a student’s eyes light up because they’ve solved a problem through their own skill, teamwork, and perseverance. Whether it’s a winning team from the Central Highlands Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities at our national competition or a group of kids at a small local workshop, that moment of joy is always the same.