Polytechnic University lecturer talks about challenges for postgraduate education

At the Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Forum 2024 organized by VietNamNet Newspaper, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Phi Le, director of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research and Application (AI4LIFE), lecturer at the School of Information and Communication Technology (under Hanoi University of Science and Technology) shared about the current situation and challenges in training and researching artificial intelligence (AI).

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Phi Le said that before we can do jobs related to AI, we need to develop human resources that are proficient in knowledge related to this field. “That is one of the most important issues, without which we cannot do anything,” Ms. Le said.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Phi Le, Director of the Institute for Research and Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI4LIFE), lecturer at the School of Information Technology and Communications.

Ms. Le cited that training and research at Hanoi University of Science and Technology focuses on three main axes: Training knowledge about AI; in-depth research on AI; transferring research projects into practice.

“Hanoi University of Science and Technology aims to train human resources related to AI at different levels. Not all graduates of Hanoi University of Science and Technology will become in-depth experts in the field of AI, but can work at many different levels of AI use.

The most basic level is just using AI proficiently in your work; the second level is that AI engineers can create products with AI applications; the most in-depth level is in-depth research on AI," Ms. Le analyzed.

According to her, to achieve the goal of creating human resources at many levels like that, the training program at the school follows a pyramid model. In which, at the basic level, instead of just providing students with the top knowledge related to AI, the school focuses on training, providing learners with basic knowledge of mathematics and information technology.

“These are the most important things. In technology, AI changes every day and very quickly. To keep up, there is no other way than to have a very solid foundation, in which math and computer science (algorithms, databases, programming languages, etc.) are essential for anyone who wants to use AI. Without this foundation, we will not have in-depth insights and will not be able to learn new knowledge,” said Ms. Le.

The female lecturer said that knowledge of Mathematics (including analysis, statistics, linear algebra...) is equipped for all students of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, not just students majoring in Information Technology.

“For students majoring in Information Technology, we provide basic knowledge about AI such as data management, data processing, data visualization and basic knowledge about machine learning, deep learning... Then, the school has specialized training programs on AI. Students in the Bachelor of Data and Artificial Intelligence will be provided with advanced and latest knowledge in the field of AI such as natural language processing, generative AI...”, Ms. Le said.

The Associate Professor revealed that the Training Council of Hanoi University of Science and Technology has also approved updating the training program, which will include knowledge about machine learning and simple deep learning models in the basic knowledge block for all students.

In addition to the undergraduate training program, Bach Khoa University also has a master's training program in data science and artificial intelligence (a continuation program of the undergraduate level).

However, the female lecturer said that the sad thing about university education in general in Vietnam is that the rate of students continuing to graduate school is very low, compared to the world .

“In major research universities in the world, such as the University of Tokyo (Japan), the ratio of their postgraduate students is about equal to the number of undergraduate students. However, in Vietnam, this ratio is extremely low."

"While if we want to solve difficult, specialized problems, we cannot rely solely on human resources trained with a 4-year bachelor's degree, we must have human resources trained in depth," said Dr. Le, adding that this is a big challenge for Vietnamese education.

Vietnamnet.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/giang-vien-dh-bach-khoa-noi-ve-thach-thuc-doi-voi-giao-duc-sau-dai-hoc-2363295.html?gidzl=Q-VU1jNIRmvj_DW9rCHe36ZqsGZCacXRSwhQKvYSR50ggujJn9CqKdkXrbAKmp84AQ7M0ZQA08Omqz9l3m