This afternoon, the “Active Prosthetic Leg” project by the Flexi Leg team from Duy Tan University excelled over 9 competing teams representing 9 organizations across the ASEAN region to win the Championship at the “ASEAN Virtual Entrepreneurship Hackathon 2024.”

The Active Prosthetic Leg is the creation of three Duy Tan University students—Hồ Ngọc Huy, Ngô Hương Giang, and Ngô Thị Thạch Thảo—who researched and developed a fully self-designed, safe, low-cost, and high-quality prosthetic leg tailored to the physical characteristics of people with disabilities in Vietnam.

The idea behind the “Active Prosthetic Leg” stems from the fact that people with lower-limb disabilities in Vietnam face great difficulty in mobility and daily activities. Meanwhile, imported active prosthetic legs are often unaffordable and unsuitable for the financial conditions of many families.

To successfully develop the product, the team conducted a survey of lower-limb measurements of Vietnamese people across different age groups. From there, they selected the most common measurements to design a 3D model of the prosthetic leg and produce detailed fabrication drawings, eventually assembling a fully functional prototype. The design includes key components such as:

• A knee joint

• A shin section

• A foot

Notably, the knee joint uses a hydraulic shock absorption system to support flexion and extension, while extension is further assisted by a spring. The students carefully calculated technical specifications such as damping force, body weight, and the “torque” generated by the hip joint to ensure safe and appropriate operation.

With the guidance and support of instructors and specialists from the Center for Mechanical Engineering (CME), School of Engineering & Technology (SET), the entire prosthetic leg was successfully manufactured in-house at CME—without using any imported components. This significantly reduced production costs, making the device more accessible to people with lower-limb disabilities in Vietnam.

The victory of the Flexi Leg team at the ASEAN Hackathon 2024 is not only a proud achievement for Duy Tan University but also for Vietnam as a whole. It highlights the creativity and problem-solving abilities of Vietnamese students and opens the door for further development and broader application of the product in the future—ultimately delivering practical benefits to the community of people with disabilities.