In recent years, the University of Da Nang (UDN) has exerted every effort to create closer links between its member schools, businesses and the municipal authorities in order to develop Da Nang into a smarter city.

Assoc Prof Ngo Van Duong (2nd right) presenting LoRa antennas to representatives from the municipal Department of Information and Communications

In March, the 2019 Smart Campus competition was held at the Da Nang University of Science and Technology, the University of Technology and Education, and UDN’s Faculty of Information Technology and Communications.

The event was co-organised by the Da Nang International Institute of Technology (DNIIT), the Côte d'Azur University (UCA) in France, the Francophone University Association (AUF), the city’s business community, and some technological experts. It had 60 teams participating.

Student Hoang Trong Nguyen from the University of Science and Technology highlighted the significance of the competition in facilitating local students to bring their innovative ideas to fruitions, as well as encouraging even more businesses to conduct commercialisation activities for students’ highly practical products.

Dr Le Phuoc Tuong, Director of the Centre for Resources and Communications of the University of Science and Technology, remarked the competition was considered as the first step to lay the foundation for building Da Nang into a smarter city in the current context of the thriving Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0.

The most highlight of the competition was that UCA financed the installation of LoRa antennas at all campuses of UDN’s member schools.

LoRa antenna, a low-power network, specialises in serving IoTs applications which are often used in large businesses and many pioneering cities in the aspect of smart cities.

With the help of active support of UDN, the UCA handed over LoRa antennas to the municipal Department of Information and Communications.

Assoc Prof Ngo Van Duong, Deputy Director of UDN, noted this was a vivid demonstration reflecting the close relationship between universities, businesses and their local government, contributing to promoting the development of Da Nang into a smarter city.

Mr Duong also underscored the importance of the establishment of a Science and Technology Union comprising UDN, some functional bodies, and a number of large enterprises and business associations in a bid to promote supply-demand links in the future.