Humanitarian Logistics Hackathon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 28-29/03/2026
Two teams in Ho Chi Minh City, one prize home: SCA at the Humanitarian Logistics Hackathon
We are proud to share that on 28–29 March 2026, ten students from the Department of Automation & Supply Chain Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Royal University of Phnom Penh, joined the Humanitarian Logistics Hackathon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — an event organised by Kühne Logistics University with participants from Cambodia, Germany and Vietnam.
Ten students, two teams, and a prize brought back to RUPP
The Royal University of Phnom Penh sent ten students from the Department of Automation & Supply Chain Systems Engineering (ASCSE), Faculty of Engineering, to the Humanitarian Logistics Hackathon in Ho Chi Minh City. They competed as two teams — Link 4 Life and Chain Master — over two days of problem-framing, prototyping and pitching.
The hackathon was organised by Kühne Logistics University (Hamburg, Germany) together with the Business Startup Support Centre (BSSC) and innoex, with HELP Logistics as strategic partner, and drew student teams from Cambodia, Germany and Vietnam. The brief asked teams to design practical answers to real humanitarian logistics problems — getting relief goods, volunteers and information to the people who need them, on time and under pressure.
Congratulations to both teams on this wonderful achievement. Thank you for representing our department with passion, teamwork and commitment, and for bringing the prize back to RUPP. You have truly made us proud on the international stage.
Link 4 Life and Chain Master
Link 4 Life pitched a coordination dashboard for an NGO workspace — tracking action requests, completed deliveries and engaged volunteers alongside a live view of goods in stock and supply against demand. The team took the Consolation Prize in the University Track, worth 5,000,000 VND.
Chain Master carried the department's second entry through the same two days of mentoring, prototyping and pitching, and stood on the award-ceremony stage alongside the teams from Cambodia, Germany and Vietnam. Their name was read out from the stage as one of the two Royal University of Phnom Penh teams in the competition.
Logistics, but for people in crisis
Humanitarian logistics is the work of moving relief goods, volunteers and information to people affected by disaster or hardship — the same planning, routing and inventory problems taught in a supply chain classroom, but with lives rather than margins at stake. Over two days in Ho Chi Minh City, mixed university teams were given a humanitarian brief, mentored by academics and industry practitioners, and asked to pitch a working answer to a judging panel.
Sending two full teams — not one — put ten SCA students in front of an international panel, and one of them came home with a prize. That is the department's supply chain curriculum tested against a real humanitarian brief, in English, against universities from three countries.
On stage with Cambodia, Germany and Vietnam
Key details
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Event | Humanitarian Logistics Hackathon |
| Dates | 28–29 March 2026 |
| Venue | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
| Organiser | Kühne Logistics University (KLU), Hamburg, Germany |
| Organising committee | Business Startup Support Centre (BSSC) · Kühne Logistics University · innoex |
| Strategic partner | HELP Logistics |
| Participating countries | Cambodia, Germany, Vietnam |
| RUPP delegation | 10 students, Department of Automation & Supply Chain Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering |
| Teams | (1) Link 4 Life · (2) Chain Master |
| Result | Link 4 Life — Consolation Prize, University Track (5,000,000 VND) |
| Award ceremony | Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplan, President of Kühne Logistics University · Ms. Nguyễn Thị Diệu Hằng, Director of BSSC and Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Young Business Association (YBA) |
“Thank you for representing our department with passion, teamwork and commitment, and for bringing the prize back to RUPP. You have truly made us proud on the international stage.”