After watching a Youtube video, Stefan Van-Khanh, a Vietnamese-American who recently graduated with a degree in economics from Cambridge University, decided to pursue AI research.
Journey off the beaten path
Growing up in London, Khanh’s connection to Vietnam came mainly from his mother and trips back to visit family. He always had a desire to understand more about his roots.
In 2020, when COVID-19 broke out, Khanh completed his economics degree at Cambridge University. From an economics background, he realized the power of AI in solving economic and social problems, opening up new directions that he had never thought of. That year, the UK was almost completely locked down, making starting a career or moving into a new field challenging. However, Khanh realized that this was the right time to pursue what he truly wanted without being overwhelmed by career pressure.
Khanh often learns Vietnamese through a popular podcast channel on YouTube. By chance, he came across a podcast featuring Dr. Nguyen Xuan Phong, Director of AI (CAIO) of FPT Software, FPT Corporation. In the video, Dr. Phong shares about the potential of AI in Vietnam, large-scale AI projects at FPT, and especially the FPT AI Residency youth talent training program.
That moment became the "door" that helped Khanh see a clearer future, realizing his long-standing desire: to return to Vietnam, connect more deeply with his homeland, and pursue AI.
Stefan Van Khanh at FPT AI Residency.
Stepping stone for great aspirations
Returning to Vietnam and joining FPT AI Residency, although he did not have an AI foundation, under the guidance of leading experts, the support of talented colleagues and the opportunity to cooperate with prestigious research institutes such as MILA, he quickly achieved his first achievements. “ AI Residency not only trains but also encourages the spirit of engaging in difficult problems and creating real value, inspiring me to confidently pursue AI in Vietnam, ” Khanh shared.
To date, Van Khanh has become the lead author of two scientific papers accepted and presented at the world's most prestigious AI conferences - NeurIPS and ICLR - which gather the leading minds in the field, meaning his research is recognized by the international academic community.
Stefan and the other “AI Residents” join in presenting the science project.
His research "Elliptical Attention" proposes a new approach to building Transformers (a deep neural network architecture widely used in AI), which reduces Representation Collapse (a phenomenon where model representations become less diverse) and increases Robustness (stability, resilience to noise and data changes) for the model.
Meanwhile, the second research paper “Tight Clusters Make Specialized Experts” explores how to organize deep learning models in a way that increases the specialization of components in neural networks, helping to improve the performance of AI systems in handling complex tasks.
At NeurIPS 2024, Stefan presented the paper Elliptical Attention as lead author.
Sharing about his journey at FPT AI Residency, Khanh expressed: “ I not only learned from my Vietnamese colleagues but was also convinced by their spirit of conquering AI, motivating me to set higher standards for myself. Above all, thanks to this place, I found new meaning and direction in my career when I returned to my homeland.”
After graduating from FPT AI Residency, Khanh said he will pursue a PhD at a prestigious university, with the aspiration of becoming a scientific researcher at an industrial laboratory. With his current foundation, Khanh hopes to contribute to the global AI research community, inspiring the young generation of Vietnam to continue on the journey to conquer AI.
“Keep an open mind when you start researching. At first, a topic may seem strange or unrelated to your expertise, but the deeper you dig, the more unexpected connections you will find. Machine Learning is a constantly evolving field, absorbing ideas from many different disciplines. Sometimes, it is the outside perspectives that lead to the most important breakthroughs in your career, ” Khanh advised future students.
FPT AI Residency is a training program for the young generation in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Vietnam, implemented by FPT since 2021. The program is not only a place to nurture domestic talents but also a launching pad for them to reach international standards. As of 2024, AI Residency has successfully enrolled 5 courses, nurtured more than 75 young talents, published 110 research papers, including 82 papers in leading conferences and journals such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL, EMNLP,...
FPT AI Residency is enrolling for the 6th course. For more information, visit: https://fpt-aicenter.com/en/ai-residency
Ha An
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/hanh-trinh-tro-ve-viet-nam-chinh-phuc-ai-cua-chang-trai-goc-viet-ar932350.html
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