HCM-UTE Students Win IoT Challenge 2026 with Smart EOG Glasses for Wheelchair Control

On September 18, 2026, at the final round of IoT Challenge 2026 held at FPT Hola Park in Hanoi, a team from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering (HCM-UTE, formerly Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education) overcame hundreds of competing teams to win the Championship and a prize worth USD 3,000.

IoT Challenge 2026 is an international technology competition co-organized by FPT Software and Silicon Labs for students with a passion for the Internet of Things (IoT), embedded systems and engineering. Under the theme “Smart Healthcare with Edge AI,” this year’s competition focused on smart healthcare solutions that apply artificial intelligence on edge devices.

The competition drew 687 teams with 3,407 students from 140 universities in Vietnam, India, Hungary and the United Kingdom. After six months of competition across multiple rounds, the ten best teams were selected for the final.

In the deciding round, the NovaTech team from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering presented the project “Smart EOG Glasses for Wheelchair Control.” NovaTech comprises four students of the 2023 intake in biomedical engineering at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, HCM-UTE – Nguyen Anh Kiet, Huynh Thien Hai, Nguyen Thuy Linh and Dinh Ngoc Truc Phuong – together with Nguyen Kim Tuong Vy from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. The team worked under the direct supervision of Dr. Ngo Ba Viet, a lecturer at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, HCM-UTE.

The distinctive feature of the project “Smart EOG Glasses for Wheelchair Control” is its ability to control a wheelchair through eye movement without relying entirely on a tracking camera. The solution uses electrooculography (EOG) signals to detect horizontal and vertical eye movement and converts them into wheelchair commands such as moving forward, turning left, turning right and stopping. The team optimized a wearable EOG sensor, improved the reliability of eye-movement classification, reduced noise caused by body movement and extended the interface for connection to an electric wheelchair. This approach contributes to a compact and convenient human-machine interface suited to real-world use.

The team also designed a sensor system and a signal-processing circuit to acquire EOG data, and integrated an Edge AI model directly on an embedded board. Data is classified and recognized on the device itself, which allows the system to respond quickly, reduces latency, protects user privacy and maintains stable operation where network connectivity is limited.

The product is intended for people with disabilities and patients with severe limitations in the movement of their arms and legs. Using eye movement as the control channel helps users depend less on manual operation and gives them an additional way to interact with digital devices. Beyond wheelchair control, the solution also opens up the potential to develop other eye-controlled interfaces, thereby contributing to greater autonomy, better access to technology and improved quality of life for people with mobility impairments.

With a systematic research process and a prototype demonstrated live in the final round, the project of the NovaTech team prevailed over representatives from Vietnam and abroad to win the Championship of IoT Challenge 2026, together with a prize worth USD 3,000.

The achievement of the NovaTech team at IoT Challenge 2026 reflects not only the research capability, technological command and innovative thinking of HCM-UTE students, but also their ability to turn specialized knowledge into practical solutions for the community. This result continues to affirm the University’s training orientation, which is closely linked to practice, places learners at the center and promotes the spirit of “Humanity – Innovation – Integration” at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Engineering.