During the recent opening ceremony for the new academic year at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Ngoc, a student in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, was chosen to represent nearly 9,700 freshmen to deliver a speech.

The former student of Le Hong Phong High School for the Gifted was the top scorer of the school's specialized physics class.

Last July, Ngoc won a Gold Medal at IPhO held in Colombia, which featured students from 85 countries and territories. This achievement helped place Vietnam among the top seven performing countries at the competition.

That same year, she won a silver medal at the Asian Physics Olympiad and first prize in the national selection contest for outstanding physics students.

Prior to that, Ngoc had won first prize in the provincial competition for outstanding students, second prize in the national physics competition and a place in the selection round for Vietnam's International Physics Olympiad team.

For winning a gold medal at the 2026 IPhO, she received a certificate of merit and VND500 million from Ninh Binh Province.

Behind those medals and awards was not an easy journey. Standing before her teachers and fellow students at the opening ceremony, Ngoc said she had experienced many moments of self-doubt on the way.

“There were days when I sat for hours in front of a problem without knowing where to start. There were experiments that did not turn out as I had hoped. After failures and moments of exhaustion, I asked myself whether I was really suited to this path.

“But those moments also helped me gradually realize that learning is not always about how good you are. Sometimes, it is simply about whether you are willing to sit down and face a problem you do not understand, and whether you have enough patience to keep going when you cannot yet see the answer,” Ngoc said.

From physics problems to practical technology

Despite numerous awards in physics, when faced with an important choice about her next step, Ngoc decided not to pursue pure physics study and instead moved into engineering.

Ngoc said she chose Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering because it is a field that Vietnam is actively developing. The country's growing focus on high technology, semiconductors and the electronics industry is creating opportunities for young people to develop their careers in Vietnam.

“By studying electronic and telecommunications engineering at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, I can continue applying the physics knowledge I have learned and bring engineering into real-life applications,” Ngoc said.

Her years studying specialized physics have also given her a foundation that she believes will be useful in an engineering environment.

“Studying physics in depth has taught me perseverance, patience and diligence, as well as the ability to model phenomena and understand a problem before figuring out how to solve it,” Ngoc said.

Ngoc is also not particularly concerned about being a woman in an engineering field traditionally dominated by men.

“I think what really matters is your ability and how seriously you take the field you choose to pursue,” she said.

During her four years at university, her goal is to build a solid foundation in electronics, telecommunications and related fields. At the same time, she wants to develop programming, system design and other skills needed to work in the technology sector.

Among the various career paths within the field, she is particularly curious about integrated circuits and semiconductors.

“I am very curious about why there are so many chips inside phones and computers, and I really want to be able to design integrated circuits like those myself,” Ngoc said.

However, she believes technology is changing so quickly that engineers cannot rely solely on what they learn at university. That is why she does not want her four years of university to revolve only around lecture halls and textbooks.

“What I want most is to try things I have never had the opportunity to do before — take part in projects, build real-world products, conduct research in laboratories and work with people who have different backgrounds and interests from mine,” Ngoc said.

She also wants to gain experience in both engineering and research before deciding which direction to pursue in the future.

Thuy Nga