Located in a 'remote province', the Mathematics Department of Quy Nhon University has been famous for its research and training for many years, and is aiming to become a strong national Mathematics center.
In 2020, the National Key Program for Mathematics Development in the 2021 - 2030 period decided to invest, making the school's Mathematics and Statistics Department one of the three strong Mathematics departments in the country, the locomotive for Mathematics development in the Central Highlands region.
After three years, Associate Professor Dr. Do Ngoc My, Principal of Quy Nhon University, Binh Dinh province, assessed the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics as a bright spot in the school's training and scientific research.
Associate Professor, Dr. Do Ngoc My, Principal of Quy Nhon University. Photo: VinIF
- In recent times, how has the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics been invested in and made progress?
- Over the past three years, since being officially invested in by the Mathematics Program to develop into a strong mathematics center, the faculty has received a lot of active support to enhance enrollment, develop training quality and scientific research.
2020 is the second year the faculty has enrolled students in the Applied Mathematics major, specializing in Data Science, increasing from 12 students in the first year to 36. Since then, the faculty has trained in Applied Mathematics with the major of Applied Mathematics - Informatics, and opened an independent Data Science major, with a total of about 150 students.
The Faculty also opened a master's program in Data Science, sponsored by Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VinIF), with two graduating classes and relatively good student quality. Some excellent students received scholarships from VinIF (VND 120 million/month).
Although the number of students is still modest, these are very important steps in training new majors related to science and technology of the faculty.
The number of scientific publications of the faculty has increased in quantity and quality in recent years. In the period 2010-2020, on average each year, the faculty's lecturers published about 25 scientific articles in prestigious journals in the ISI list. From the Key Program on Mathematics and funding from NAFOSTED (National Foundation for Science and Technology Development), the lecturers have published many quality scientific research works, receiving awards from the Ministry of Education and Training.
On the other hand, the international relations of the faculty have been significantly increased, with many summer schools, refresher courses, international conferences on Mathematics and applications in the fields of Mathematical Physics, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence held at the school. Through these, many domestic and foreign experts come to the school and the faculty to give lectures and exchange science.
With activities to popularize mathematical knowledge in the Mathematics Program, the department has brought mathematics to high school students in the province and some neighboring provinces in the Central and Central Highlands regions. Activities to support the implementation of the 2018 Mathematics General Education Program with experts invited by the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM) have created positive effects inside and outside the province.
I think that the influence of the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics of Quy Nhon University in the domestic and international Mathematics community has been clearly enhanced in recent years.
Associate Professor Dr. Do Ngoc My (middle) and representatives of the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics at the ceremony to announce the national key program on Mathematics. Photo: Quy Nhon University
- In your opinion, what should be done in the coming time to turn the faculty into a strong center of Mathematics?
- The school's leaders always pay attention to and prioritize investment in developing training, scientific research and application of Mathematics.
In the coming time, the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics will continue to promote its strengths in training and scientific research, further improving the research capacity of its teaching staff. We will also take advantage of investment from the Mathematics Program to improve understanding of the role of Mathematics for students, parents, and teachers in the Central and Central Highlands regions; and strengthen the implementation of programs, research projects, and applications of Mathematics.
The school will connect with businesses to participate in training and research activities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in accordance with practical human resource needs, especially in applying Mathematics in practice, solving specific challenges and problems in life.
With strengths in pedagogical training and basic sciences, the school aims for sustainable development, exploiting basic sciences such as Mathematics to create a good application foundation for a series of fields such as Digital Transformation, Information Technology, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence.
- What difficulties does the school encounter in realizing this strategy?
- Despite receiving investment priority and a network of domestic and foreign support experts, there is still a long way to go with many challenges if we want to achieve our goals.
To develop into a strong mathematics center in the Central and Central Highlands regions, we still need stronger investment and connections from agencies, organizations and businesses. All levels need to have priorities in reviewing scientific research topics, helping lecturers of the Mathematics Department improve their capacity for research and application of Mathematics.
In the coming time, the school will quickly establish research groups, strong research groups with funding from the school's Science and Technology Development Fund.
Professor Dang Nguyen Viet, Paris Sorbonne University, France, lectures at the Summer School of Mathematical Physics at Quy Nhon University, August. Photo: QNU
- Many universities in small provinces have difficulty attracting and retaining talented people with research capacity. What solutions does the school have for this?
- Over the past 46 years, the Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics has provided nearly 12,000 high-quality human resources in the field of Mathematics and Statistics for the Central Highlands provinces in particular and the whole country in general, especially Mathematics teachers and lecturers from high school to university.
Although located in a small province, the faculty has a high-quality teaching staff, 100% of whom have PhD degrees, mostly from prestigious Mathematics training institutions in Europe and the US, and has good collaborative relationships with a number of Mathematics research institutions around the world.
However, recently, some talented lecturers have changed jobs because they want to experience new working environments. Even so, the school has also successfully retained many lecturers after studying abroad.
With funding programs from NAFOSTED, VinIF, ministerial-level topics, lecturers of the faculty and school have built research groups, including strong research groups in Optimization, Control Theory, Dynamical Systems, Matrix Analysis, Partial Differential Equations.
Lecturers are free to develop their research, with a relatively stable income. With a strong attachment to the school and Quy Nhon being a beautiful city with a low cost of living, lecturers can generally live and work with peace of mind.
Le Nguyen
Source link
Comment (0)