Nguyen Dang Minh, 23, graduated top of his class at a leading Vietnamese technology university with a GPA of 3.85/4.0, having already secured a job at a major US technology corporation in Vietnam nearly six months earlier.
Minh is among nearly 100 outstanding university graduates in Hanoi who will be honored at a ceremony in mid-November.
He graduated with highest honors from the high-quality Information Technology program at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT), earning a GPA of 3.85 out of 4.0 and becoming the institution's top graduating student.
"Opportunities to work in university research labs and participate in research projects helped me gain hands-on experience, push beyond my limits and meet the demanding expectations of an international working environment," Minh said.
From a late start in programming to award-winning AI projects
Nguyen Dang Minh graduated as the top student at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee.
During his middle school years, Minh excelled in chemistry. With both his grandfather and uncle working in the field, he was initially encouraged to pursue a chemistry-related career.
However, after failing to gain admission to a specialized chemistry class in Grade 10, he enrolled at Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary and High School in Hanoi. Over the following years, his growing interest in computer science gradually led him toward a different career path.
In 2021, Minh gained admission to PTIT's high-quality Information Technology program. It was there that he encountered programming for the first time, starting with fundamental languages such as C and C++.
Compared with classmates who had attended specialized informatics schools or learned programming in high school, Minh was something of a late starter. When he first entered university, he had little idea of which direction he wanted to take.
"Even though I wasn't sure which path to follow, I believed I would never know what suited me unless I gave things a try," he recalled.
Rather than waiting for a clear answer, Minh actively sought opportunities to explore his interests. Soon after enrolling, he joined a programming club, where he could practice regularly and develop his skills.
What began with his first lines of code gradually grew into a genuine passion, eventually drawing him into competitive programming.
In his third year, Minh joined two research laboratories working in different fields. At a lab specializing in Vietnamese speech recognition, he gained experience in data processing and training artificial intelligence models.
At the same time, he became involved in the IEC Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab, where he worked on projects designed to address real-world social challenges. One initiative involved developing an application to translate and teach sign language for people with hearing impairments.
These experiences broadened his understanding of technology, encouraging him to look beyond the technical aspects of building products.
"Through each experience, I gradually realized that technology only becomes truly meaningful when it creates value and helps people," Minh said.
Nguyen Dang Minh at his graduation ceremony. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee.
Among the projects he has worked on, Vilutra holds a special place for Minh. Together with his teammates, he developed an AI-powered system designed to help locate missing children in public spaces such as amusement parks and shopping malls.
The idea emerged from a desire to reduce the panic and potential dangers families face when children become separated from their parents.
For Minh, the project was more than an opportunity to apply his AI knowledge. It challenged him to use technology to address a specific problem in everyday life.
Vilutra won third prize in a startup idea competition organized by PTIT. The university subsequently selected the team to participate in international competitions, where it received an Excellence Award at the University of Sydney's Coding Fest in Australia and took first place in Track A at Next Wave of Startup 2025.
The project also led to Minh co-authoring a scientific paper presented at the 2025 International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology (SOICT 2025).
In 2025, PTIT selected Minh to attend a global entrepreneurship design thinking event in South Korea, where he won third prize for an idea to develop an application supporting people with food allergies.
He was later chosen to participate in the NUS Young Fellowship 2025 program at the National University of Singapore.
Joining a US technology giant
Minh participates in the NUS Young Fellowship 2025 program at the National University of Singapore. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee.
Alongside his academic studies and research, Minh began looking for opportunities to gain experience in the corporate world.
As early as his second year at university, he applied for unpaid internships, prioritizing practical experience over financial compensation.
He subsequently joined BIVA, a startup specializing in voice bot technology. There, he worked on artificial intelligence projects and gradually took on responsibility for leading a small team.
According to Minh, working in a company presented challenges quite different from those he encountered in university classrooms.
Beyond technical expertise, he had to adapt to tight deadlines, demanding product quality standards and the responsibility of collaborating effectively with colleagues.
Managing several projects simultaneously also forced him to improve his time management, problem-solving skills and ability to independently acquire knowledge he lacked.
These experiences laid the groundwork for Minh to pursue opportunities in more demanding professional environments.
In late 2025, he successfully passed a rigorous recruitment process and received a job offer from the Vietnamese operation of a major US multinational technology corporation.
He now works as an Associate AI/ML Delivery Consultant, helping businesses implement artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.
Having secured his dream job nearly six months before graduation, Minh sees the opportunity as another important step in his professional development.
"I hope to learn how to deploy technology solutions in an international corporate environment," he said.
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