The information was confirmed by Partha Pratim Pande, director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University, where Nghia is currently a faculty member.

Born in 1987, Hoang Trong Nghia studied at the High School for the Gifted in Ho Chi Minh City before earning his bachelor’s degree in information technology from the University of Science under Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City in 2009. He later became a lecturer at the University of Information Technology.

In 2014, he obtained his PhD in computer science from the National University of Singapore, a leading research hub in Asia, particularly in artificial intelligence.

He went on to conduct research at some of the world’s top institutions, including postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as research roles at the MIT IBM Watson AI Lab and Amazon Web Services AI Labs. Since 2023, he has established an artificial intelligence research group at Washington State University.

Nghia’s research focuses on fundamental challenges in machine learning rather than short term applications. One key direction is uncertainty aware machine learning, which enables AI systems not only to make predictions but also to assess the reliability of those predictions. This capability is particularly critical in high stakes domains such as healthcare and autonomous systems, where safety and trust are essential.

He has also made notable contributions to federated learning, an approach that allows AI models to be trained across distributed datasets without centralising sensitive data. This method is especially important for applications involving medical data, personal information and connected devices, helping balance performance with privacy.

His research further addresses optimisation challenges in distributed, heterogeneous and data limited environments, which remain major obstacles for modern AI systems.

In addition, Nghia has contributed to black box optimisation, a field focused on optimising complex systems that cannot be fully described by mathematical models. This area has broad applications, including materials design, semiconductor optimisation, large scale AI development and biomedical research such as drug interaction prediction and complex biological data analysis.

Nghia’s receipt of the NSF CAREER Award not only marks a significant personal achievement but also reflects the growing integration of Vietnamese scientists into the global high technology research ecosystem.

As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries and societies worldwide, this recognition highlights the increasing presence and contributions of Vietnamese talent at leading research institutions.

Within the US research system, the NSF CAREER Award is widely regarded as a top distinction for young faculty and researchers. It not only recognises outstanding research potential but also represents a long-term investment commitment, typically providing around US$600,000 over five years to support projects with strong future impact.

Overseas intellectual honoured for contributions to national development and Australia-Vietnam ties

VOV.VN - Vietnam’s Consulate General in Perth on April 23 presented a Certificate of Merit from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Associate Professor Dr Duong Thi Hong Lien, who is working at Curtin University in Western Australia.