How can AI assist in search and rescue?

AI solutions for disaster relief is one of two topics of Zalo AI Challenge 2025 - the leading competition of the Vietnamese AI community.

In 2017, the United States suffered a devastating hurricane Harvey that hit Texas and Louisiana, causing property damage equivalent to $125 billion and killing more than 100 people. After the storm, 43 organizations were granted special licenses to operate drones in the area, serving various purposes: Search and rescue, assessing the situation in the area... Using drones helps shorten the waiting time for people to receive insurance money when the damage to their homes can be assessed quickly and accurately.

Using drones helps shorten waiting time in search and rescue work, assess the situation in the area...

In Vietnam, natural disasters are becoming increasingly complex. In 2024, when it swept through the northern provinces, Typhoon Yagi caused serious damage to both life and property. It is estimated that Typhoon Yagi caused VND81,500 billion in damage, leaving 344 people dead and missing. Post-storm rescue work encountered many difficulties, especially in mountainous areas where flooding made it difficult for rescue teams to reach in time. In such extreme conditions, drones are considered an effective solution for rescue and relief work.

To promote the effectiveness of drones in emergency situations and disaster response, helping to search for missing people or important objects in harsh environments such as flooded areas, dense forests, and storm-damaged areas, Zalo AI Challenge - one of the largest artificial intelligence arenas in Vietnam, has chosen a topic related to drones, creating opportunities for contestants to apply AI technology in a practical, important issue for Vietnamese society.

Search and rescue by drone

“AeroEyes -Finding and Rescuing with AI-Powered Drones” is not just a test for candidates; it is more of a prospect for AI development in Vietnam with practical applications. As a unit that has researched and launched many highly applicable AI products, Zalo hopes that this groundbreaking test will contribute positively to search and rescue work in Vietnam.

2 topics of Zalo AI Challenge 2025.

Combining AI with drone systems has opened up a breakthrough: the “eyes of the sky” can scan dozens of square kilometers in just a few minutes, analyzing images in real time to detect people in distress, deep flooded areas or blocked roads. Instead of relying on manual observation in harsh conditions, AI helps rescuers determine locations more accurately, optimize resources and significantly shorten response times.

Zalo AI Challenge teams will build algorithms to control drones to perform a specific task in a real-world environment from images recorded by drones - simulating a real- world search and rescue mission.

Dr. Chau Thanh Duc - Deputy organizer of the competition, Director of Artificial Intelligence Development at Zalo, shared: "Zalo AI Challenge brings practical AI problems, helping the Vietnamese community access the latest trends in the world. The competition is a bridge between passion, knowledge and cooperation in the journey of developing AI in Vietnam".

Dr. Chau Thanh Duc - Deputy organizer of Zalo AI Challenge 2025.

In addition to senior staff at Zalo AI, contestants also received advice from leading AI experts, including: Dr. Chau Thanh Duc - Director of Research & Development, Zalo AI; Dr. Nguyen Truong Son - Director of Science , Zalo AI; Professor Nguyen Le Minh - Head of the Machine Learning and Natural Language Understanding Laboratory, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST); Professor Tran Thanh Long - Deputy Dean, Director of Research, Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, UK; Dr. Tran Minh Quan - Senior Technology Development Expert, NVIDIA; Dr. Luong Viet Quoc - CEO of Realtime Robotics.

The annual Zalo AI Challenge attracts many young people passionate about AI technology.

The Zalo AI Challenge 2025 exam "extends" the impressive artificial intelligence exams that Zalo AI Challenge has brought to candidates. In 2023, Zalo AI Challenge brings 3 exams: Elementary Maths Solving - building an AI model to solve elementary math problems according to Vietnamese education standards, Advertising Banner Generation - AI automatically designs advertising banners based on pre-descriptive information, and Background Music Generation - developing AI to create background music based on requirements for melody, instruments, music genres...

Young people passionate about artificial intelligence can find information about the competition and register at the website challenge.zalo.ai.

Source: https://znews.vn/ai-co-the-ho-tro-tim-kiem-cuu-nan-ra-sao-post1598624.html