PLEIKU, Vietnam – October 29, 2023

As part of our innovative Big Data road safety program, AI&Me: Empowering youth for safer roads, we are pleased to launch the ‘Cung Đường Biết Nói’ – AIP Foundation x DATMANIAC (feat. CAM) I Youth Act for Safer Roads music video (MV) by hosting an AI&Me Road Safety Challenge Day for students. The aim of the Road Safety Challenge Day is to use music to raise road safety awareness among students and empower them to speak up to be heard by the local government through a Youth Engagement App (YEA). AIP Foundation is proud to collaborate with Vietnamese famous rapper Datmaniac and welcome rapper Yuno Bigboi to the event. The music video features the Youth Engagement App, which is being piloted in Ho Chi Minh City, Pleiku City, and Yen Bai since December 2022.\n
\nAI&Me Road Safety Challenge Day: Youth ACT for Safer Roads\nTo celebrate the launch of the music video, a Road Safety Challenge Day will be hosted in Pleiku by AIP Foundation in collaboration with the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) and local government partners. Approximately 1,300 students will participate from over ten secondary schools.

Students will take part in performances of the music video to raise awareness among their peers on the importance of safe school zones. This day will provide a unique opportunity for students to share their own opinions about the risks they face and call on other young people to take action and report dangerous streets. Students will be able to choose one of the following three options for their performances: – Rap cover based on the music and lyrics of the MV – Dance cover based on the music and lyrics of the MV – Combine Rap and Dance cover based on the music and lyrics of MV

Ultimately, the music video calls for all students and youth around the country to raise their voices for safer mobility.

“The Youth Engagement App is a platform which encourages youth across Vietnam to take an active role in shaping the future of their city and city streets while not only supporting but also prioritizing their health and wellbeing. The YEA app leverages AI and digital technology to ensure meaningful youth participation,” shares Siddhartha Jha, AI and Digital Innovation Lead for Fondation Botnar.

Empowering youth: A Youth Engagement App for safer mobility

The YEA App, developed by leading partner the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), offers young people an efficient way to identify and report high-risk road conditions, providing them with a platform for their voices to be heard. Through the App, government officials will receive data as actionable recommendations to make effective and evidence-based road safety interventions. This will make it easier to identify blackspots to focus on for more in-depth analysis to determine the safety level of the school area.

Since the pilot study was launched, the students already used the YEA App to share their own perceptions by creating more than 18,000 pins for locations near their schools with notes about the road safety risks they saw, raising their voices for improved road safety. These findings support the need to identify risk locations in order to determine school zone star ratings using the Star Ratings for Schools system. Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) is an evidence-based tool for measuring, managing and communicating the risk children are exposed to on a journey to school. It supports quick interventions that save lives and prevent serious injuries from day one.

Following the YEA App pilot study, a post-assessment was conducted with 1,468 students to measure the changes in their knowledge and attitude. The students with good or excellent knowledge increased significantly from 55.8% to 80.6%. The percentage of students displaying a positive attitude increased from 42.1% to 58.6%.

“We are incredibly proud to celebrate the Road Safety Challenge Day together with students and international partners in Pleiku. The YEA App is a unique platform that empowers students to speak for their needs and rights. Only together with youth can we bring about real change,” shares Mr. Doan Huu Dung, Director of Department of Transport, Standing Deputy Chief of Traffic Safety Committee of Gia Lai province.

AI for Good: Using Big Data to save lives on Vietnam roads

Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years globally. In Vietnam, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that more than 6,200 children and youth aged 5-29 were killed in road crashes in 2019. This represents a public health crisis that disproportionately affects young people most. Road upgrades, speed management, as well as enforcement of behavioral risk factors are needed to address this crisis effectively.

AIP Foundation’s three-year AI&Me: Empowering youth for safer roadsprogram is supported by Fondation Botnar – a Swiss philanthropic foundation working to improve the health and wellbeing of young people living in cities around the world – as well as the FIA Foundation, Anditi, and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP). The Traffic Safety Committees and the Department of Education and Training of all three provinces support the launch of the App in their areas.

In recent years, big data technology has been utilized to transform road safety through predictive analysis by evaluating historical data to pinpoint high-risk areas. These maps enable authorities to take preventative measures before casualties happen.

TheAI&Meprogram revolutionizes road safety measures in Vietnam, paving the way for emerging technologies to address public health issues. Recently, Google.org granted iRAP and partners USD$2 million with AIP Foundation as Vietnam lead partner to make children safe on their way to school. Using AI, satellite imagery and Street-View images to detect road safety risks, iRAP, together with partners AIP Foundation, Anditi and the University of Zagreb (FPZ, FER), will provide a country-wide star rating evaluation of road infrastructure around schools in Vietnam and support the upgrades at the highest-risk schools. The YEA will be used to capture student perceptions of the risks they face to inform decision-making.

“The Youth Engagement App, which we can call YEA, is a useful and easy-to-use application for all users, including students like us. We use this application to report to the government about locations that we feel safe, unsafe or very unsafe. From there, we can remotely support the government in providing improvements and solutions to ensure road safety. We are very happy to join the AI&Me project and use the YEA application because we look forward to contributing our efforts to ensure the safety of the people of our beloved country,” shares Dieu Anh*, a student at Nguyen Du secondary school.