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DCU and Vietnam University Ho Chi Minh Science University strengthen academic links in new agreement
DCU and Vietnam University Ho Chi Minh Science University strengthen academic links in new agreement

DCU and Vietnam University Ho Chi Min City Science University strengthen academic links in new agreement

Dublin City University and Vietnam University Ho Chi Min City Science University (VNU-HCMCS) have signed an agreement that will further strengthen their academic links into the future.

It is anticipated the universities will focus on collaborative research in areas such as ICT, Bio-technology and Medical Devices and AI.

Announcing the agreement, Trevor Holmes, Vice President External Affairs in DCU, says the Memorandum of Understanding between both universities demonstrates the increasing academic and enterprise linkages between both countries, particularly so since the opening of an Irish embassy in Vietnam in 2005.

“However our relationship runs deeper as this year, Ireland and Vietnam mark 22 years of diplomatic relations,” Mr Holmes said  

“Both Ireland and Vietnam share common cultures steeped in ancient civilisations that valued scholarship, spirituality and creative endeavour.

“Our national history and policy objectives may be well aligned but not as well as our shared values of deep respect for our history, our cultural identity, pride in our recent achievements and a commitment to the importance of shared community and family.

“Both of our countries have made extraordinary progress since then and particularly in increasing the standard of living of their citizens through recent decades.

 “Vietnam is an exciting and dynamic country in which economic growth and poverty reduction have shown remarkable results.

“The opportunity for collaboration is immense with the investment by your government in the science and technology parks aligned to leading higher education institutions and their focus on ICT, Bio-technology, Medical devices and AI, all key strengths of this university.”

Earlier this week, Mr Holmes welcomed Vice President International, Prof Minh-Triert TRANS, Head of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories and the HCMUS delegation on their first visit to DCU following the announcement of the new agreement, as well as the first funded collaboration from the VIBE2019 programme.

“It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge that the success of our collaboration has yielded four fully funded PhD students from HCMUS, who are now undertaking their research in multimedia data analytics here in DCU and they are co-supervised by staff in DCU and HCMUS

“We are also expecting renewed funding, for 2020/2021 through the VIBE programme, to be approved and announced by the Irish Embassy in Vietnam very shortly.

“This will support several workshops, an International conference, and many researcher exchanges during the coming two years on data analytics led by Dr Cathal Gurin, PI in DCU Insight Research centre,” Mr Holmes said.

Some five conference publications – co-written by DCU and HCMUS staff – have been published since the start of this year, Mr Holmes added. This number is expected to grow into the future as the collaboration between DCU and HCMUS deepens.