Jul
29

A Story from VinUni Student: Overseas Research Opportunities at the campus of The University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign (UIUC), USA

Phan Nhat Huy is a sophomore student majoring in Electrical Engineering at College of Computer Sciences and Engineering, VinUniversity. This summer, he will have the opportunity to work at UIUC campus as a Research Intern for a 3-month paid internship.

“The opportunity for international students to take part in world-class interdisciplinary projects with distinguished Professors from prestigious universities is truly rare. So, when I found out that I will be joining my supervisor at VinUniversity to conduct research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), I was extremely happy and grateful,” shared Phan Nhat Huy. Through working directly and regularly with Professors and researchers at UIUC, Huy hopes to improve his research skills, connect with the talented academic community, and experience life and culture in the US.

In a few days time, Huy will depart for UIUC with Prof. Do Ngoc Minh – Director of the VinUni – Illinois Smart Health Center (VISHC) and Honorary Vice Provost of VinUniversity. Together with other professors from UIUC, they will work on a research project in smart healthcare that utilizes technological solutions, titled: “Towards a Comprehensive Solution for a Vision-based Digitized Neurological Examination”. The goal of the study is to develop a program that conducts neurological diagnosis by analyzing patients’ images and videos of patients’ motions in an accurate, timely, and replicable manner.

“This research was inspired by an American neurologist who can accurately diagnose through motions. Since there are few doctors that possess this unique ability, in order to reduce time as well as improve efficiency and accuracy, we need a program that can help machines perform similar tasks,” Nhat Huy shared.

The project has completed its 1st stage – developing the application and basic infrastructure for the diagnostic method. In the 2nd stage, Huy will help come up with advanced algorithms and collect data. “My aim is to write a research article summarizing the results of the project after 3 months at UIUC. I believe that the things I’ve learned at VinUniversity, my engineering knowledge, and my foundational knowledge will help me successfully complete the assigned tasks and goals,” Huy added.

About The VinUni-Illinois Smart Health Center (VISHC)
The VinUni-Illinois Smart Health Center (VISHC) is a result of the cooperation between VinUniversity (VinUni) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) – USA. Its core emphases are biotechnology and data science. This project is granted 13.5 million USD by Vingroup to work towards building and developing research that has positive impacts on human health at low cost and high accessibility.