(Singapore): Cambodia’s digital innovation sector earned regional recognition as students from the American University of Phnom Penh (AUPP) secured second place in the AI Ready ASEAN Youth Challenge, outperforming more than 600 teams from across Southeast Asia.

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications congratulated the Cambodian team, Voha.ai, for the achievement, marking a significant milestone for Cambodian youth innovation in artificial intelligence.

Organised by the ASEAN Foundation in partnership with Google.org and AI Singapore, the four-month competition brought together young innovators from across ASEAN to develop practical AI-driven solutions. Participants underwent intensive training, submitted project proposals, and built working AI prototypes before advancing from national rounds to the regional finals.

The Cambodian team, Voha.ai, was represented by Kean Youhorng and Kong Lyching from AUPP’s Faculty of Digital Technologies.

Their project, Voha.ai, is an AI-powered speech learning platform designed to support hearing-impaired children in Cambodia. By transforming pronunciation learning into a visual and interactive experience, the system combines computer vision and speech recognition to provide real-time feedback, structured learning, and progress tracking for educators and NGOs.

They were honoured with an award presented by Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Singapore, and also had the opportunity to take commemorative photos with Chea Vandeth, Minister of Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in Cambodia, along with ASEAN digital ministers.

The ministry expressed hope that the team’s achievement will inspire greater AI innovation and contribute to Cambodia’s broader digital transformation agenda under the Royal Government’s technology-focused policies.
=FRESH NEWS