TTO - Research on artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer unfamiliar to Vietnamese students. The world of AI opens up many surprises not only because of the "intelligence" of machines, but also because of the "thinking minds" of young people passionate about science.

To make AI speak up

At the University of Science (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City), Ton That Vinh and Hoang Trung Hieu - who have just graduated from the honor bachelor's degree in information technology program - are no strangers to students.

The two buddies worked together on their thesis under the guidance of Associate Professor Dr. Tran Minh Triet (Vice President of the University of Science) and Prof. Do Ngoc Minh (UIUC - University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign - USA).

Looking back in time, Ton That Vinh said that his three-month internship in the US opened up a new research direction for him. Working in Prof. Do Ngoc Minh's research lab in the US, Vinh was highly evaluated for his foundational knowledge and research potential.

Through histopathology images, Vinh proposed a method to increase the accuracy of counting cells belonging to different types. The image analysis software counts the number of cells, helping to monitor the drug impact in cancer treatment to adjust the appropriate dosage.

This method was ranked 11th out of 40 in the competition at the MICCAI 2018 conference, the world's leading conference on the application of computer science in medicine, along with approaches proposed by many research groups from prestigious universities in the US, Germany, England, China, India, Austria, etc. This result was published in the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. At that time, Vinh was only a third-year student while the other authors had master's and doctoral degrees.

Meanwhile, Hoang Trung Hieu has proposed a new method for classifying endoscopic images of the intestines, supporting doctors in screening and detecting common diseases and anatomical points in the images. Hieu's method won first prize in the MediaEval 2018 conference competition.

According to Hieu, there are a lot of images recorded from endoscopic videos, and it would be very time-consuming to read all of them. Not to mention, there are some normal images that can be skipped without concern.

"My research will support doctors and experts in quickly filtering images they need to find. That's why there is an algorithm to provide warning images for doctors," Hieu analyzed.

"The research direction of artificial intelligence to support healthcare professionals in diagnosis and treatment that the two of you have chosen is very meaningful and promising. It will assist doctors in diagnosing medical images to choose appropriate treatment options."

                                                                      Assoc.Prof.Dr Tran Minh Triet

“The Cradle” of young talent

It's not an exaggeration to say that the computer science department is the "cradle" for training and nurturing many computer talents. Some outstanding student names can be mentioned such as Le Yen Thanh, Dam Nguyen Trong Nhan, Nguyen Xuan Gieng, Nguyen Dinh Luan, Nguyen Thanh An. And now, the pair of friends Ton That Vinh and Hoang Trung Hieu.

These students all grew up from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AILab) and Software Engineering Laboratory (SELab). Many names in this list have received countless awards in information technology, outstanding scientific research, being honored as "Outstanding Young Citizens of Ho Chi Minh City," winning high prizes at the Eureka Scientific Research Student Award for many consecutive years...

The summer internships abroad, attending specialized conferences, high-level scholarships - students are always carefully supported by teachers, and one cannot fail to mention the teacher who has been attached to many generations of students - Associate Professor Tran Minh Triet.

"Working with him, we can freely share our thoughts and ideas, sometimes just by saying it, the teacher and students understand each other immediately. That empathy is a motivation, opening up new directions for us to develop our research," Vinh shared.

Ton That Vinh (right) shares information with attendees at a computer vision conference in the US - Photo: M. TR.

Power-assisted arm for medical field

After his internship, Vinh continued to pursue his research and try to find new directions for this relatively new field. Vinh kept in touch and exchanged ideas regularly with Dr. Ben Chidester from Carnegie Mellon University, who was also a co-author of the research.

Recently, Vinh published a completed scientific paper on the topic of cell separation in medical images at a conference in the US in June, which was also his graduation thesis.

Trung Hieu also interned in the US last summer, but he chose a different path in medical image analysis. He thought of using an endoscopic device that could "run" inside the patient's intestine like a "pill bug". Moreover, he considered connecting the device to allow doctors to read the results simultaneously with the device's movement, and it would automatically filter to only send images that had warning signs because doctors would not have enough time to watch all the 8-9 hour-long videos.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Minh Triet highly evaluated the scientific potential of his two students. Vinh and Hieu both demonstrated scientific abilities early on, actively seeking research directions and proposing ideas since their first year.

"These are all potential and important research directions. The research results will be further refined to support medical experts in diagnosing and treating diseases from medical images," said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Minh Triet.

Despite the difficulties in accessing image sources, research conditions, and facilities, the students are still exploring their scientific path every day.

"Developing research that is related to reality is a long story, not just about funding and resources, but also about connecting in many directions, in which collaborating with the medical field is essential. I still strive to improve my research ability every day, and if there is a suitable opportunity, I will study abroad," said Hieu.

The duo "Outstanding young citizens of Ho Chi Minh City"

These two young men are not from Ho Chi Minh City, but were honored as "Outstanding young citizens of Ho Chi Minh City" in consecutive years. Ton That Vinh, from Thua Thien Hue, was named on the "Outstanding young citizens of Ho Chi Minh City" list in 2018; while Hoang Trung Hieu from the coastal region of Khanh Hoa was honored in 2019.

In the graduation season of 2019, Vinh was at the top of the class, while Hieu achieved the second highest position, both in the honor bachelor's degree program of the information technology faculty. Each of them also has a collection of high prizes in international academic competitions, scientific papers presented at some international conferences, or published in reputable international journals...