Prof Dr Hồ Tú Bảo of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics speaks about digital transformation at a three-day conference that began on Thursday (November 21) at the Hoa Sen University in HCM City. Photo courtesy of the university

HCM CITY— While there is much more data than ever before and digital technologies are growing very fast, there is a huge shortage of human resources, experts have told an ongoing conference at the Hoa Sen University in HCM City.

Speaking to Việt Nam News on the sidelines of the three-day conference starting on Thursday, Trương Vĩnh Trường Duy, assistant project manager, research and development, at Aisin Seiki Co.Ltd in Japan, said there was a shortage of people who could analyse data while the volume of data is enormous.

The auto industry, for example, has huge demand for people who could apply artificial intelligence (AI), he said.    

Universities in Việt Nam are currently training hundreds of students in AI every year but the numbers fall short of demand, he said. 

His company is working with universities in Việt Nam and other countries to provide projects to students while they are still studying to improve their knowledge and experience. 

According to Dr Tô Hoài Việt, head of the software engineering department at Hoa Sen University, his university is collaborating with many enterprises on new technologies for digital transformation to learn from their experience and improve its training programmes. 

When it has enough experts and advanced training programmes, it plans to tie up with enterprises that want to carry out digital transformation.   

“To address the shortage of digital human resources faced by enterprises, universities should integrate AI, machine learning and blockchain into other faculties besides IT.” 

They are applied in banking, finance and healthcare, and students of these streams should acquire basic knowledge of how to apply them, he pointed out. 

Universities should also offer short courses in them for people working in these industries, he said.

Universities should enable IT engineers to do research in them because adopting technologies from other countries means the country can only develop after them. So research in the country should be strengthened, he said. 

Many foreign and Vietnamese scientists are presenting their research in AI, the internet of things, decision support systems, and others at the conference, he added.  

The 14th International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems aims to facilitate technology and knowledge exchange by international researchers and scholars in the fields of knowledge science, information systems, system science, creativity support systems, and complex system modelling. 

It is being held by Hoa Sen University in co-operation with Vintech City, which is a comprehensive eco-system supporting tech research and start-ups based on the Silicon Valley model in the US. VNS