The Vietnamese contestants at the WICO award ceremony. (Photo: VNA)

Le Tam Trang, Dang Duc Luong, and Nguyen Minh Tuan were awarded the Grand Prix Award, the highest prize of the competition, for their “Research on a model of heavy metal-contaminated water treatment using filter materials combined with microorganisms in root system”.

Nguyen Le Hoang, Tran Gia Khiem, and Vu Hong Phuc were honored for their project "Study on extracting biologically active substances from avocado leaves to make dietary supplements for patients with gastric ulcer caused by Helicobacter pylori".

Le Tuan Minh and Nguyen Bao Vi were awarded a special prize by Thailand’s Chulalongkom University for their project “Research on making preparations to treat household plastic waste”. The project isolated microbial strains from intestines of wax worms that eat plastic to create a preparation for microplastic treatment.

WICO is an annual competition held by the Korea University Invention Association (KUIA) and sponsored by the Republic of Korea's National Assembly. This year, the 12th WICO was held in the RoK from July 27-29 with the participation of contestants from 27 countries.