Calls across time zones from distant cities at the end of the year give us the opportunity to listen to the sharing of young people from Da Nang who are studying and working abroad. In their journey of studying in a foreign country, they do not forget to dedicate an important part to their dreams in their homeland.

Trinh Hoai Nam is preparing to present a scientific article on AI applications for neuroscience at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2024 conference held in Chicago, Illinois, the USA in October 2024. Photo: XUAN SON

Using AI to improve the quality of life

Trinh Hoai Nam (born in 1993, a former student of the University of Science and Technology, the University of Da Nang) is a PhD student at the Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. He majors in research on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques in analyzing data about the human brain and neurological diseases in the field of neuroscience.

In addition, the young man from Da Nang is a technology consultant for businesses operating in the fields of education, healthcare and mental health in Dublin.

During his busy schedule abroad, Trinh Hoai Nam had the opportunity to publish and present many scientific articles, as well as introduce new methods in computer science and data science.

Among programming and data science competitions in Europe, he won first prize at the Huawei Arena 2024 competition, second prize at the Huawei Arena 2023 competition, and several awards from the Irish Scientific Research Agency to conduct research in Rochester (the U.S.) and at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Institute (France).

Nam shared his plan to develop a technology enterprise in Da Nang, with a focus on the application of AI in healthcare, education and mental health care. “In recent years, the Party and the State have been actively promoting the digitalization of processes and solutions in many fields, especially in healthcare and education. This is a great opportunity for me to contribute to this transformation with advanced technology products, especially AI applications” he emphasised.

Nam plans to build applications based on large language models for Vietnamese languagr. This will not only help improve the ability to understand and process natural language in AI systems, but also create applications that are suitable for the needs and language usage habits of Vietnamese people. Not stopping there, he wants to expand his project to the field of mental health care - an issue that is increasingly focused on in modern society.

He said, AI can play an important role in monitoring and analysing users' psychological state, thereby providing timely support solutions. For example, AI applications can detect early signs of stress, anxiety or depression, as well as provide interventions such as relaxation exercises, self-care advice, or even connect users with psychological experts via online platforms.

“I believe that my project will have a great potential for sustainable development and bring practical value to the community. My hometown Da Nang, with its dynamism and focus on developing technology industries, will be an ideal place for me to carry out creative projects, thereby contributing to fostering the overall development of the country and improving the quality of people's lives," Nam shared.

Tran Quoc Thien successfully defended his PhD in Civil Engineering at the Virginia Tech University. Photo: XUAN SON

Two dreams of a young doctor

A year ago, Mr. Tran Quoc Thien (born in 1992, a former student of the University of Science and Technology, the University of Da Nang) successfully defended his PhD dissertation in Civil Engineering at the Virginia Tech University (the USA), along with a master's degree in Materials Science. Immediately after that, the Da Nang native was accepted into the postdoctoral research programme at the University of Texas-Austin (ranked 3rd in Civil Engineering in the US). He is currently in the process of applying for a professorship at several universities in the US.

In a foreign land, Thien recalled his hometown, and the difficult years of his family. His father died early, and his mother worked hard to earn a living, raising two brothers until adulthood. In that memory, there was the image of a mother and her two children pushing a cart to sell sticky rice throughout the poor countryside of Hoa Khuong Commune, Hoa Vang District.

Such memories become the motivation for the young man to strive to study, boldly leave his family to go to a foreign land to nurture his dreams. Thien shared he had two dreams: one for himself and his hometown, and the other for the community of young people.

With the orientation of researching green materials applied in construction, Thien's research group cherishes the creation of green cements that can reduce and limit CO2 emissions and are environmentally friendly.

"In the near future, we hope that our research results will be implemented in Viet Nam, especially in his hometown of Da Nang," said Thien.

Thien's second dream is to develop a large community that can connect and support the young generation in the country who want to develop their education and careers abroad. That community now has more than 60,000 members on social networks. Through this forum, young people are consulted and share their experiences in hunting for scholarships, or searching for study materials in foreign countries, etc. Thanks to his support, many students have found scholarships with a total value of about VND 100 billion to date. Mr. Thien hopes that number can reach about VND 200 billion per year in the following years.

“Studying and working in developed countries with modern facilities, high expertise, as well as leading technologies, is a good opportunity for Vietnamese people to approach so that they can then bring values ​​to contribute to the sustainable development of the country in many ways without being bound by geographical location. I think it is an exchange and learning from other knowledge bases, not a story of brain drain,” Mr. Thien shared.

In Thien’s future plans, there is a small project of donating books to poor children. He hopes to build a source of books donated directly from benefactors instead of cash, and at the same time allocate his own budget for this project.

Hopefully, all plans will come true when young people always look towards their homeland.

Reporting by XUAN SON - Translating by M.DUNG