Go to the museum, read the history of digital transformation

There are many interesting things you can learn at the Private Museum of Information Technology (IT) - a place considered a 'red address' for science lovers.

Dr. Nguyen Chi Cong with the VT80-85 development system, Vietnam's first computer - Photo: Tam Le

Get your hands on one of the earliest generation computers, learn about the process of improvement into today's supercomputers, find out who created the first computer in Vietnam, explore the portraits of Vietnamese computer scientists and their contributions in bringing information technology to Vietnam from the middle of the subsidy period and from there completely changing the way society develops as well as the lives of each citizen...

"The museum is my life"

Appearing in a simple, dark khaki shirt, Dr. Nguyen Chi Cong - owner of the first IT Museum in Vietnam - happily acted as our tour guide. "The museum is also my life" - Mr. Cong emotionally expressed.

In 2020, urged by colleagues atFPT , Mr. Cong went to the warehouse to dust off equipment, components, and documents, and convinced his wife to support him in selling his car and using the garage as a display area. From there, the IT Museum was born, located at his home on Dong Tac Street, Kim Lien Ward, Hanoi.

Our first impression of the museum was two information walls, recording the milestones of the IT industry in Vietnam (from 1960-2000) and the world (from BC - 1995). Next to them were many ancient computer models with strange shapes compared to modern computers today. Each number, component, and artifact is a separate story.

Mr. Cong pointed to a small object placed on the glass table in the middle of the room: "These are semiconductor chips, RAM, CPU, CD, first generation internet-connected phones. Some I researched when I was studying in Czechoslovakia, some I found interesting so I bought them, some were tested and failed, some were successful...".

Next are the circuit boards and computers of different generations, marking the breakthroughs in the improvement process of the manufacturers. From the black and white analog type with a screen like a television to the digital type with a color screen. There is the first Macintosh, the type with strong graphics that Mr. Cong had to buy for tens of thousands of dollars decades ago and still works well.

Books on IT, computer history, microprocessor technology, operating systems, basic computer science... There are many books named after author - co-author - translator Nguyen Chi Cong.

"Thanks to reading, translating, and writing books, I have researched and understood this issue or that deeply, which surprised many people. But before that, they were surprised when I suddenly disappeared for a whole week, when I was busy spending time on books" - Mr. Cong happily said. He also took the opportunity to advise the young people present to find more books to read.

The corner that all visitors pay special attention to is the large vertical book design, on the pages are portraits and biographies of professors and scientists who have had a special influence on the IT industry of Vietnam. Each page of the book is a life.

"Part of the purpose of building the museum is to show my gratitude to those who came before me," Mr. Cong said as he introduced each page: Professor Ta Quang Buu - a visionary manager who laid the foundation for many modern scientific fields in Vietnam, including informatics. Professor Phan Dinh Dieu - a leading informatician, who has the merit of planning the training and development of the informatics team in our country.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ba Hao - the first doctor, the teacher who paved the way for formal IT training. Engineer Duong Quang Thien - the first person to bring IT into management and practical training in Vietnam, is also a very familiar figure to readers of Tuoi Tre newspaper...

The IT Museum is uniquely designed, attracting visitors - Photo: museum

Vietnamese intelligence is not inferior to the world

"Young people should know that Vietnamese people are very good, not inferior to anyone. As long as you have faith, passion for learning and pure purpose, opportunities will come. If it doesn't come this time, there will be another time..." - Dr. Nguyen Chi Cong advised the young people.

1960 was the first milestone mentioned on the wall of Vietnamese IT. That year - in the North - Professor Ta Quang Buu made a plan to build a computer industry in the State Committee for Science and Technology. In 1965, in the South, engineer Duong Quang Thien - the first Vietnamese computer engineer to graduate in France and be recruited by IBM - returned to work in Saigon, applying information technology to management for the first time.

"At this stage, the country was still backward and at war, but in both the North and the South, we had people who saw the importance of information technology and knew that computers would change life," Mr. Cong told the story with admiration in his voice.

In 1972, after studying computer science in Czechoslovakia, Mr. Cong worked for the State Committee for Science and Technology, under Professor Phan Dinh Dieu. Then, he worked at the Institute of Computational and Control Science at Doi Thong, Lieu Giai Street, Hanoi.

In January 1977, a notable event was the successful manufacture of the first FT8080 computer, called VT80 made in Vietnam. Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong and his colleagues overcame many challenges to do it under the guidance of French scientist Alain Teissonnière.

"Many professors and doctors did not believe that it was possible to make a computer at that time. They said we were 'crazy dreamers' - Mr. Cong recalled with a laugh - Very different from everyone else, Mr. Phan Dinh Dieu believed in us. Professor Dieu was the one who saw that information technology was the future."

A brother in the technology industry wrote about those days: "The group of young engineers working with Alain were all poor and emaciated, their lunch boxes were full of eggplants or pickles, but they were eager to learn and quickly grasped technology and techniques. The group had more than a dozen people, including Nguyen Gia Hieu, Nguyen Chi Cong, Huynh Thuc Cuoc, Nguyen Trung Dong, Nghiem My, Nguyen Van Tam, Phan Minh Tan... working tirelessly."

The VT80 computer was essentially a “mother machine”, a “development system” used to produce other machines. Its next generations, VT81, VT82, VT83… were put into use in agencies and enterprises. The success of the VT80 was praised by the Vietnamese leaders at that time, Minister Vo Nguyen Giap and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong.

"At that time, installing personal computers in Asia was no different from Hai Lua making submarines or helicopters later. Even French experts did not believe Vietnam could do it," Mr. Cong recalled.

After the war, only France "accepted" to cooperate with our country while the US imposed an embargo. At that time, General Giap said: France is our only door to the world. The information technology industry is a rather modest financial cooperation but very successful and gives the fastest results.

Throughout his life, Dr. Nguyen Chi Cong devoted himself to his profession, writing books and teaching. He was invited by the IFI School in France to be a guest lecturer. His books include Microprocessor Engineering, which has been published in thousands of copies, and Basic Computer Science books from grades 1 to 9, which students study at school every day.

He is now an old man of nearly 80 years old, has had four heart surgeries, and is taking medicine while enthusiastically telling stories. Since the museum opened, many domestic and foreign delegations have come to visit. He has also been busier with appointments to talk about IT with groups of young people. And not just about technology, he tells the young people: they need to always improve their knowledge, need to have good expertise, and need to understand history, culture and art.

The Path to the Internet Door

The first successful application of information technology in the military was the anti-eavesdropping communication device of the Cipher Bureau in cooperation with the Science and Technology Committee. Mr. Cong was the one assigned to implement it. The teletype of the Cipher Bureau was attached with a tiny specialized computer to send and receive encrypted text lines and print them out immediately. This was a unique solution that Mr. Cong suddenly thought of.

In 1981, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Kiet supported Sinco - a leading garment factory that we took over after unification - to apply technology to management. The company's director flew to the North to invite Mr. Cong's group to support.

In 1986, the Institute of Applied Technology (Nacentech) was established by Professor Vu Dinh Cu, under the Council of Ministers. Nacentech received much support to follow the pioneering direction in Vietnam, researching with applications rather than just theory.

VT81 and VT83 computers are used at Hoang Thach Cement Factory, Central Cipher Committee, Ministry of Public Security, Hanoi Mechanical Factory, Tan Binh Electronics Factory, Government Office...

In the late 1980s, Vietnam entered a period of renovation. The Vietnam Association of Information Technology was established, and a series of its subsidiaries were born. Previously, FPT was established by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (now the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology).

In 1993, the Government issued Resolution 49/CP on IT development in our country. The State-level key science and technology program for the period 1990-1995. The national IT standards were also issued, and Mr. Cong was assigned to draft them. To this day, he is still in charge of this set of standards.

The National Information Technology Program Steering Committee (IT2000) was established, with Mr. Dang Huu as its head. In 1996, Mr. Cong was appointed as head of the network subcommittee at IT2000. The following year (1997), Vietnam opened its gateway to the Internet. The road to the world was wide open from then on.

From his experience working at the Institute of Information Technology, FPT, Nacentech, IFI, IT2000, Mr. Cong learned three lessons about technology: 1. Don't make things that are outdated (like 8-bit machines, black and white TVs); 2. Don't make things that are too difficult (like chips because the environment must be super clean); 3. Make things that have a market (like when FPT abandoned the food technology sector to sell computers and succeeded; Samsung made chips with excellent memory, surpassing both the US and Japan...).

The Vietnamese Scientists Heritage Park is located on a lush green hillside - Photo: NVCC

Fueling the fire at the scientists' heritage park

Located on an area of ​​over 30 hectares in Thung Nai commune, Hoa Binh province, the Heritage Park of Vietnamese Scientists (Meddom) has the advantage of peaceful landscape, flowing streams, and pine trees.

The name Meddom is understood as a castle that preserves memories to educate, orientate learning and work, and contribute to future generations.

With their ingenuity, the museum construction team has received more than 1 million documents, artifacts, and research works of more than 7,000 Vietnamese scientists from all over the country.

There are artifacts kept since the 1930s such as pens, diaries, letters, handwritten manuscripts and birth certificates in Chinese characters. There are handwritten and typed scientific research manuscripts, manuscripts with original notes and corrections by scientists. From natural sciences to social sciences, from mathematics to agriculture and forestry, reform of the national language...

The museum's archives are very lively, in addition to paper documents and block artifacts, there are also films, audio recordings and a digital data platform to help scientists' documents become more complete and full.

Talking about his passion for building the museum, Professor Nguyen Anh Tri said: "When I was a graduate student abroad, I enjoyed and appreciated the comments and evaluations from scientists. I realized that they were valuable documents, not only helping to complete my thesis but also having special meaning for my life journey."

He wanted to collect more documents of other scientists and then the idea of ​​building a museum was born. With the absolute support of his family, in 2003 he officially started building the museum of scientists' heritage. The funding from Med-Group until the completion of the construction was about 500 billion VND.

"This heritage belongs to the people so that the young generation has a place to return to, nurture their love and serve science. Scientists all come from the people, documents and artifacts are all assets of the people," Mr. Tri added passionately. He continued: "When I happened to hear the commitment "In the future, I also want to be a scientific researcher" of a boy in a group of secondary school students brought by his teacher to visit the museum, I felt spring flowers and hope bloom in my heart. I hope that the heritage here will become a creative motivation for young people, continue to complete the unfinished works of their ancestors, contribute to science and science will continue to serve human life and society. That is when the museum is successful."

To keep the museum's wish as the people's heritage, Professor Nguyen Anh Tri has just decided to hand over the Heritage Park of Vietnamese Scientists to the State for management.

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TAM LE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/den-bao-tang-doc-lich-su-chuyen-doi-so-20250826155052986.htm