Computational science institute to focus more on practical research

Since its establishment in 2008 by the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) People’s Committee, the Institute for Computational Science and Technology (ICST) has been able to attract several Vietnamese experts in the field of science-technology to aid the economic transformation process and the boost of hi-tech industries in the city. It is now striving to concentrate more on highly applicable research to help the public as well as businesses in need.

Domestic and international scientists are discussing in the 4th international conference on computational science and engineering (ICCSE-4) in HCMC. Photo by T.Ba
Domestic and international scientists are discussing in the 4th international conference on computational science and engineering (ICCSE-4) in HCMC. Photo by T.Ba

Having the stable staff of 40 officers and researchers, ICST is closely cooperating with 6 overseas Vietnamese professors and foreign ones while warmly welcoming the contribution of various doctors, senior researchers from both local and international educational institutes.

ICST is also an active member of the PRAGMA network, a multi-national research association with more than 40 members across the Pacific area.

The institute possesses a highly efficient computational system and a surplus budget to serve scientific studies. In addition, there are many advantageous policies such as the model of co-director as well as foreign managers, the critical mechanism, and the international standard in project inspection to attract Vietnamese talents who have learnt overseas.

After 10 years operating, ICST has been able to complete 90 percent of the 116 assigned tasks. In particular, during the first 7 months of 2019, the institute accepted and checked 20 projects and is now proposing to the HCMC Department of Science and Technology for finance sponsor.

Until July 2019, ICST’s scientists published over 240 articles on renowned global journal (SCI, SCIE). The first 7 months of this year has witnessed the publication of 28 articles, 80 percent of the total number in 2018.

One more remarkable achievement of ICST is the training for 20 new doctors and masters of science via scientific-technological projects in the country as well as in other nations, some of whom are now working in famous international universities like the University of Leuven in Belgium or Seoul National University in South Korea.

ICST has launched several practical projects to serve the city development, achieving very impressive results. They include WEBGIS, a solution to calculate water and air quality in HCMC; a monitoring sensor system for certain environmental rates to assist the task of real-time air quality forecast; or an aiding system to automatically record and prepare a meeting minute using voice recognition technology.

In 2019, ICST is going to continue its goal of improving the research quality and expanding the comprehensive effects of its research, with a strong focus on those that can be implemented immediately in the reality.

It is also going to increase the quantity of internationally published articles and global conference to boost its own fame.

The aim of commercializing computational software in the fields of medical care, computational chemistry, computational environment is to be carried out this year to help ICST become more financially independent, said Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ky Phung – Director of ICST.

Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of the HCMC Department of Science and Technology, expressed his hope that ICST would be able to use its research results to aid the city in addressing its urgent issues like urban flooding, traffic congestion, air pollution.

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