Three Male Students from Bach Khoa University Simultaneously Win Ph.D. Scholarships in Computer Science in the US

"Three students from the same laboratory at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) have simultaneously secured full Ph.D. scholarships in the US before graduating, a rare achievement.

Among them, Nguyen Manh Duong is a student in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Cao Minh Tue and Tran The Hung are in Computer Science, from the School of Information and Communication Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Duong received full Ph.D. support in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (ranked 33rd in the US, according to US News & World Report) with a total value of approximately 9.8 billion VND. Meanwhile, Tue will study at the University of Florida (ranked 30th), and Hung at Washington State University (ranked 189th), both with equivalent support of 7 billion VND.

All three received notification letters for their Ph.D. scholarships in March-April, but will not receive their bachelor's degrees until next September.

Cao Minh Tue at ICLR 2025 - a leading AI conference, as the first author of a scientific paper. Photo: Provided by interviewee."

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"Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Phi Le, director of the Institute of Research and Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI4LIFE) at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, stated that all three students conducted research at a laboratory (lab) within the Institute.

Duong, Tue, and Hung all achieved excellent academic scores, with GPAs of 3.94, 3.85, and 3.61/4 respectively. The three male students were the first or second authors of papers presented at leading international conferences on Artificial Intelligence such as ICCV, ICLR, and NeurIPS.

"I have never seen any lab, even at other universities, where three students simultaneously received Ph.D. scholarships to go to the US for Computer Science from their fourth year of university like this," said Ms. Le. "I believe it's extremely rare."

According to Associate Professor Le, typically, Hanoi University of Science and Technology students receive Ph.D. scholarships in Information Technology after graduating, having already spent 1-2 years conducting research at major corporations like Vingroup, FPT, and Viettel."

Duong, Tue, and Hung believe that early scientific research experience was a key factor in securing their US study abroad scholarships.

'This is invaluable experience because postgraduate studies demand curiosity, exploration, and there's almost no specific curriculum anymore,' Duong remarked. 'Early scientific research helped me get accustomed to this, allowing me to try and fail, and then become confident and unafraid of challenges.'

Hanoi University of Science and Technology, established in 1956, is the leading university in Vietnam for engineering education. The university offers 65 undergraduate majors, 63 master's degree majors, and 32 doctoral degree majors. Each year, HUST admits approximately 8,000-9,000 new students.

Last year, among about 7,000 graduating students, only 8.65% achieved excellent grades, and nearly 7% of graduates pursued master's or doctoral degrees."

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