RMIT STEM graduate bound for Australian PhD

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Tiếng Việt

RMIT STEM graduate bound for Australian PhD

Bachelor of Engineering (Software Engineering) (Honours) graduate Tang Quang An has started his PhD (Computer Science) at RMIT University on a full scholarship (tuition fee and stipend) immediately after graduation.

An is under co-supervision of supervisors in RMIT School of Science, Engineering & Technology in Vietnam and School of Computing Technologies in Melbourne.

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RMIT Bachelor of Engineering (Software Engineering) (Honours) graduate Tang Quang An

Growing up in the age of technology and witnessing how Artificial Intelligence (AI) has replicated human intellectual process and become more influential to human lives, Tang Quang An grew more and more interested in computer science.

Four years ago, An commenced the Bachelor of Engineering (Software Engineering) (Honours) degree at RMIT Vietnam without knowing that his academic journey would excel far beyond a bachelor degree.

“In fact, the application of AI to different sectors has intrigued me a lot, especially in terms of the theory and methodology behind the scenes,” the Academic Achievement Scholarship recipient said.

Intended to study IT but found his way to software engineering program instead as “it is rich in knowledge like coding and programming which allows me, in a way, to build something beneficial for the community”.

The courses and projects that An undertook during his time at RMIT Vietnam indeed deepened his knowledge, especially in Natural Language Processing (NLP), and boosted his desire even further.

“By mastering different key concepts and skills in delivering Machine Learning (ML) projects, I have demonstrated the ability to develop new ML models and architectures that could solve real-world linguistics problems with high performance and efficiency,” An shared.

“One of the courses in research methods for engineers also helped me leverage my research skills and bring out my potential in reviewing and communicating the findings from the literature.”

An’s outstanding performance through his final year Capstone project got him a job as a Research Assistant for one of RMIT’s School of Science, Engineering & Technology’s research projects.

“As part of the Capstone project, I developed a social listening system that automates the collection, pre-processing, and analysis of the aspect-based sentiments of Vietnamese online user reviews and comments,” An shared.

“And the employment at my School gave me a chance to demonstrate my research skills, both in exploring literature and developing prototypes.”

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RMIT School of Science, Engineering & Technology lecturer, Dr Dinh Ngoc Minh (pictured left) and Tang Quang An

The paper that An co-authored with his lecturer Dr Dinh Ngoc Minh from the School of Science, Engineering & Technology and a research colleague La Ngoc Minh was published in an A-ranked international conference on Information Systems.

“In the research, we successfully developed a novel aspect-based opinion summarisation framework that uses two-fold graph-based approaches to cluster multiple-short input reviews into relevant topics and structure sentence tokens as a graph to achieve salient aspect-base summaries,” An said.

Dr Minh praised An for his determination and research skills which he believed will help An complete his PhD at RMIT University.

“AI and data science are predicted to continue to flourish in the future and will be the foundation for revolutionary changes to our lives,” Dr Minh said.

“In that future, I hope to see more young Vietnamese experts who are able to not only develop but also navigate technology trends. That probably needs a methodical and long-term training program. The PhD program at RMIT follows the doctoral training process of the Australian education system and can be said to be quite challenging.”

“Completing the PhD will give An the opportunity to access academia around the world and help an enthusiastic student like An find directions for breakthroughs in science, especially data science,” Dr Minh emphasised.

Graduating top of his class with the GPA of 3.9/4.0, An encouraged those who want to follow his path of being a STEM graduate to stay positive and make the most out of the network developed from the time at RMIT.

“There’ll be challenges along the way,” An said. “Find your interest and passion, master time management and self-study skills, you’ll achieve your goals.”

An was among 1,957 graduates of RMIT Class of 2023 proudly graduated in five ceremonies taking place during the week of 17-21 April at the RMIT Saigon South campus and the National Convention Center in Hanoi.

Story: Ha Hoang

Science and technology

22 April 2023