Breakthrough deep learning algorithm wins 5 scientists $3 million prize

On the evening of December 6, the VinFuture 2024 Global Science and Technology Award Ceremony took place at the Ho Guom Theater, Hanoi.

The event was attended by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son, leaders of ministries, sectors and hundreds of world-famous technology CEOs and scientists. Among them were many researchers who were winners of prestigious international awards such as Nobel, Millennium Technology, Turing and VinFuture in previous seasons.

In its fourth year, the awards set a new record with 1,500 nominations from more than 9,000 partners from over 80 countries and territories. This number is 2.5 times higher than the first season in 2021 with 599 nominations.

After the flag-raising ceremony, the event opened with speeches by Professor Richard Henry Friend - Chairman of the VinFuture Prize Council and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

According to Mr. Richard Henry Friend, the scientific and technical works of the nominees have had a profound impact on global development. They are the crystallization of the tireless efforts of mankind. "The works of the award holders are clear evidence of the stature and increasingly widespread influence of the award over four seasons," he said.

The representative of the Prize Council also affirmed the correct vision when two groups of scientists who were honored by VinFuture continued to be recognized by the international scientific community at the Nobel Prize.

Following the speech of Mr. Richard Henry Friend, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed his gratitude to scientists and research works.

The Prime Minister said that with the message "Resilient Breakthrough", VinFuture 2024 is an important event, continuing to honor breakthrough research and inventions with far-reaching impacts, helping humanity overcome difficulties and reach new heights.

According to the Prime Minister, VinFuture Science Week 2024 and the Award Ceremony bring together the "elite" and "giants" of world science with outstanding scientific achievements, especially the 4 honored scientific works.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated and thanked Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong and his wife for establishing, developing and affirming the international stature of the VinFuture Foundation. The Prime Minister believed that the award would continue to create motivation and strong inspiration for scientists and businessmen, especially for the young generation of Vietnam.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam creates the most favorable conditions for scientists, science, technology and innovation to increasingly shine and develop strongly.

"Vietnam is committed to continuing to strongly improve the science, technology and innovation environment, always being a reliable partner and a loyal companion, and making every effort to contribute to its role as one of the 'fire-bearers' in developing the global science, technology, startup and innovation ecosystem," the Prime Minister expressed.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's statement was applauded by many scientists and guests in the auditorium.

Immediately after the Prime Minister's speech, the Organizing Committee spent most of the remaining time honoring scientists and their research.

VinFuture 2024 will award a total of 4 award categories. The main prize is worth 3 million USD (over 76 billion VND). 3 special prizes, each worth 500,000 USD (nearly 13 billion VND), will be awarded to female scientists, scientists from developing countries, and scientists researching new fields.

Among them, 'Deep Learning Breakthrough Algorithms' with pioneering and groundbreaking research on artificial neural networks and deep learning algorithms that help promote a series of applications in medicine, transportation, robotics... won the main prize of VinFuture 2024. A round of applause rang out when Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presented the award to 5 scientists: Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey E. Hinton, Jen-Hsun Huang, Yann LeCun, and Fei-Fei Li.

Their research has ushered in a groundbreaking era of technological innovation, whereby machines can “learn” from massive amounts of data and achieve incredible accuracy in tasks such as image recognition, natural language processing, and decision making.

In the remaining three award categories, American professor Kristi S. Anseth received a special award for female scientists.

Dr. Firdausi Qadri from Bangladesh with his work "Innovation to improve oral cholera vaccine in developing countries" is the winner of the Scientist Award from developing countries.

The VinFuture 2024 Special Prize for scientists researching new fields was awarded to Professor Zelig Eshhar, Professor Carl H. June and Professor Michel Sadelain for the development of CAR T cell therapy to treat cancer and other diseases.

In its fourth year, the VinFuture Awards 2024 affirmed its position as one of the most anticipated annual events in the global science and technology community. The two floors of the auditorium with more than 1,000 seats at the Hoan Kiem Theater were almost filled.

In addition to honoring scientists and their contributions, the program had explosive moments with the performance of the world-famous rock band - Imagine Dragons. They brought two songs that made their name: Believer and Whatever It Takes.

Interspersed between the sections are art performances, combining modernity with traditional Vietnamese culture such as Trong Com, Heritech dance - a combination of technology and heritage (Heritage + Technology)...

Sharing after the award ceremony, the MC had a short exchange and discussion with Professor Martin Green - the main award recipient in 2023 and Professor Pamela Ronald, two members of the award council.

The show ended at 10pm with the song "Walking the Wire", performed by international band Imagine Dragons and the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra. The performance was a combination of the characteristics of a symphony and the strong, vibrant, and edgy nature of rock, demonstrating the limitless creativity of human beings.