TRÀ VINH – There is an islet in the Mekong Delta province of Trà Vinh which is known as a centre for research and cloud computing, reported Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper.

The centre’s founder is an overseas Vietnamese (Việt Kiều) scientist and businessman named Nguyễn Thanh Mỹ.

After more than 20 years living and working in big companies in Canada and the United State, in 2004 Dr. Nguyễn Thanh Mỹ who owns more than 200 patents returned to his homeland in Trà Vinh Province with a desire of help develop the province’s economy and contribute to improving the quality of local lives.

As a successful scientist and businessman, he set up a research centre on the islet, the paper said.

At first, Mỹ started producing smart fertiliser. Unlike conventional fertiliser, his product is coated in an environmentally-friendly, high-tech polymer which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 per cent.

The smart fertilisers only need to be applied once, at just 40 to 60 per cent of conventional fertilisers, but crop yield could increase by more than 10 per cent.

In 2016, he set up a centre for research and application of cloud computing technology on Long Trị islet.

The centre, located in the basement of his house, aimed to produce smart products for local people.

Hồng Quốc Cường, one of four staff members of the centre, said that “The electricity on the islet was not stable. So we had to use generators at work.”

After years in the basement, the centre now covers an area of 10ha.

Đặng Thị Dình, a 26 year-old member of staff from the neighbouring province of Hậu Giang, told the paper that “The atmosphere in the centre was so fantastic.”

The centre’s first product was a sensor to record temperature and humidity for agricultural and aquacultural products.

The device can withstand temperatures from minus 10 to 70 degrees Celsius, said Cường.

"The device is connected to a phone via cloud computing software, so owners can monitor temperature and humidity in the containers or stores anytime and anywhere," he said.

Following the first success, Mỹ and his team continued to study to add fingerprint recognition to the sensors.

This lock helps owners know when containers or warehouses are opened and locked. In case of theft, culprits can be tracked.

According to Cường, the product he was most satisfied with was a smart water meter.

The smart meter can transfer data to a mobile so users can check the water they use each day, month and year.

The application also permits users to set the fixed amount of water per day. In cases where the water exceeds the preset amount, the app would send a warning of water leaks, Cường said.

“The user just needs to click and a smart valve would lock the meter,” he said.

The smart water meters were installed in 150 households in HCM City’s Thủ Đức District, said Phạm Hoàng Lượm.

The smart meter was one of Mỹ’s favourite products because he thought that saving and managing clean water is very important, according to the paper.

After three years, Mỹ’s centre had manufactured several products to serve the community.

On Cổ Chiên River, people can see two yellow buoys topped with solar panels.

This was also a product that Mỹ and his team successfully manufactured last year.

It was smart buoy automatically measuring the pH, saline and dissolved oxygen concentrations in the river. The data can be sent to mobile applications.

At present, there were 35 buoys placed on rivers in Trà Vinh and Bến Tre provinces.

The buoys were very useful for farmers in the Mekong Delta to monitor the river water for agricultural production.

For the last two years, hundreds of farmers in Trà Vinh and Đồng Tháp provinces benefited from Mỹ’s smart cultivation products such as smart pumps, rice transplant machines, smart fertilisers, and paddy field humidity sensors.

Using the technologies, farmers could monitor their paddy field conditions at home.

The farmers were offered the smart devices at low prices or free-of-charge, Mỹ said. — VNS