Engaging in scientific research since freshman year

Phuoc Hien graduated from HCMUT with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.6/4.0, earned the title of comprehensive excellent student, holds a TOEIC certificate of 770, and received the Ninety Eight Scholarship.

Four years ago, Hien was admitted under the priority direct admission category. He achieved 993 points on the competency assessment exam, 27.4 points in the A01 (math, physics, chemistry) subject group, and a high school transcript score of 9.6.

During high school, Hien won IOE awards at the district and provincial levels; earned the title of "Student of 3 Merits" at the school and district levels; and was the valedictorian of his graduating class in 2022.

While studying Computer Science, Hien not only actively accumulated knowledge but also proactively participated in specialized research projects.

The topic Hien is most passionate about is “Privacy Protection in Smart Home Healthcare Systems.” This is a university-level project under Vietnam National University, HCMC, aimed at home healthcare solutions that ensure privacy and data security. According to Hien, in the context of digital transformation, protecting personal medical data is a field with great application potential.

In the project, Hien was responsible for building solutions, simulating, and evaluating models based on the Decentralized Federated Learning method, while also testing the system and simulating attacks to assess security capabilities.

From this very topic, under the guidance of mentor Le Thi Bao Thu, Hien successfully developed a scientific paper that was accepted at the 18th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems in April 2026 in Kaohsiung (Taiwan - China). This was the first time Hien served as the lead author and also a presenter at a scientific conference.

Scientific research 

One of Hien's notable points is his ability to complete the study program in a shortened time while still ensuring quality. Hien did not set a rigid plan but stuck closely to the curriculum, proactively studying ahead and flexibly registering for courses. The male student balanced the number of subjects each semester to avoid overload while still ensuring early graduation progress.

The biggest challenge came during the 7th semester of the course, a time when Hien had to face many "heavy" specialized subjects, while simultaneously starting his specialized project and entering the initial phase of his graduation thesis with an in-depth research orientation. The heavy workload, combined with working on the thesis alone, put Hien under a lot of pressure.

During this period, Hien also went for an internship and wrote his CV for the first time to apply for jobs. After several rejections, Hien found a full-time internship opportunity at a company.

In the next 2-3 years, Hien aims to develop in a direction that integrates research and the application of computer science. The male student wants to participate in research and work as a teaching assistant to consolidate knowledge and practice communication skills.

At the same time, Hien wants to work at enterprises that apply technology in fields such as business, education, and healthcare to better understand market needs. Hien sets a goal to pursue higher education to expand his long-term research direction.

Regarding skills, Hien believes that systems thinking and problem-solving abilities are two core factors that need prioritized development. Alongside these are programming skills, the ability to self-study, and the ability to read and understand specialized documents in English - foundations that help with good adaptation in both research and practical work environments.

Beyond studying, Hien actively participates in extracurricular activities such as “Green Saturday,” voluntary blood donation, and the Polytechnic Ambassador Club, thereby training his sense of responsibility and teamwork skills. At the same time, Hien is self-studying office informatics, aiming for a MOS certificate to enhance work, communication, creative thinking, and interview skills.

Le Thi Bao Thu, the lecturer who directly supervised his scientific research and thesis, highly appreciated Nguyen Ho Phuoc Hien's work process and progress.

According to Thu, Hien has the capacity for independent research and works very hard. At the specialized project stage, Hien's results were not truly outstanding, but the student improved very quickly. By the graduation thesis, Hien was able to carry out the topic independently and achieve positive results.

Notably, Hien demonstrated great effort when developing his research results into a scientific paper in a very short time, meeting the deadline for the ACIIDS conference (Core Rank B).

Le Huyen