Harry Nguyễn, Assistant Professor and director of the master's programme in computer science at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, University College Cork – National University of Ireland. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Hằng

Harry Nguyễn, Assistant Professor and Director of the master's programme in computer science at the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, University College Cork – National University of Ireland, co-founder of Open Factor Foundation, the organiser of Machine Learning Operations Marathon – the first MLOPs playground held in Asia and Việt Nam, spoke with Việt Nam News reporter Nguyễn Hằng about the meaning and role of MLOPs to Vietnamese businesses and the community.

Could you please explain in an easy-to-understand way the term Machine Learning Operations - a relatively new term in Việt Nam as well as introduce the launch of the playground?

Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) is a relatively new term in Việt Nam. This is a topic combining data science and computer operations, allowing the optimisation of artificial intelligence (AI) - from start to finish - into practical applications, helping businesses easily deploy and master the technology for the best results.

The playground is organised by Open Factor Foundation - a non-profit organisation that gathers domestic and foreign researchers and developers. Our common vision is to promote efficiency and innovation in technology industries and sectors in Việt Nam, providing tools as well as knowledge and especially a foundation for generations of leaders and managers of AI and Machine Learning in order to create positive impacts on the future of the country’s technology. The hope of the foundation is to turn Việt Nam into one of the strong countries in AI technology.

Through the competition, we also want to offer opportunities to young talents, creating technology solutions that have a profound impact on the community. With experience in AI research and development at home and abroad, we recognise potentials as well as challenges in optimising and operating AI systems and practical applications in Việt Nam.

Việt Nam is a very potential country, with generations of young, talented, passionate and very interested in technology, thus, we hope that Việt Nam will reach the world in terms of operating AI and machine learning in the future.

Therefore, competitions like this allow the creation of playgrounds and connections between talents and large and small businesses, providing an environment for young talents to learn, practice and strive.

Very soon, we will have research laboratories, AI centres, and AI and machine learning companies that will reach the world’s level. Since CHAT GPT appeared, AI has been considered one of the very important tools in sustainable national development.

What is the meaning of the contest to developers, machine learning engineers, young people passionate about machine learning technology, as well as businesses in Việt Nam?

The contest is believed to be Asia and Việt Nam's first MLOPs playground. The purpose of the competition is to create a solid foundation to nurture and develop young talents so that they can master creative technologies in the future.

It brings special value to Vietnamese businesses, not only providing talents but also solutions, which are ready to be deployed in practice quickly, addressing the urgent need of machine learning applications in digital transformation.

For example, while calculation systems have still shown shortcomings in Vietnamese businesses, and actual data is far different from training data, so, optimising, deploying and monitoring the data according to standards is very necessary to ensure quality and smooth operation in the businesses.

Through the competition, individuals and businesses can proactively learn and adapt AI solutions to fit with the unique needs of the Vietnamese market, thereby, directly promoting sustainable growth and helping build sustainable growth and construct a more prosperous and inclusive society for everyone.

Coming to the MLOPs Marathon, participants had the opportunity to interact and innovate with new problems and technologies, and be consulted by leading organisations' experts, such as Techcombank, FPT AI Software Centre or University College Cork – National University of Ireland.

In addition to the first prize of more than VNĐ100 million (US$6,176), participants also have very attractive job opportunities from our sponsors, such as FPT Software AI Centre, Techcombank or Amazon Web Services.

These companies are looking for true talents and are ready to give wings to contestants to realise their dreams after the competition. If they showed impressive performances, contestants would likely receive attractive job offers or even further develop the project for future commercialisation.

The playground has received great support from a team of international experts as well as Vietnamese intellectuals abroad. Could you tell us about that team?

We have a trustworthy and enthusiastic team, from many countries around the world, such as Ireland, Sweden, Singapore or Australia. The participation of prestigious universities such as the National University of Ireland in Cork, Umea University in Sweden, and big companies such as FPT Corporation, Techcombank or Amazon Web Services.

The organisers and volunteers of the playground are all passionate and desire to contribute to Việt Nam. Everyone worked diligently and tirelessly, regardless of the difference in space or time. Their contributions created the success of the competition. Besides, the positive feedback and passion of the contestants are also a great motivation for the contest.

The contest kicked off on June 5 and wrapped up on September 9, 2023. It attracted more than 200 teams and nearly 600,000 experts and students who are passionate about AI to participate.

According to statistics, 46.2 per cent of participants are students at universities, this is also a very important future talent source for the development of AI and machine learning research for Việt Nam, 22.5 per cent are people who have been doing machine learning, 11 per cent are data scientists, and 6.1 per cent are data engineers.

Nearly 94 per cent of participants come from Việt Nam, others come from Singapore, France, Australia, South Korea, Germany, the United States and Taiwan (China). — VNS

*****

Harry Nguyễn holds a PhD in Information Systems and Analytics from the National University of Singapore. He is affiliated with the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centre for Data Analytics (Insight) and SFI's Centre for Training in Artificial Intelligence (CRT-AI). He has been working on large-scale research projects to develop reliable artificial intelligence for sustainable development goals.

His work in reliable machine learning, robust decision optimisation and smart health systems has been published in many conferences and journals, including AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), ACM Multimedia (ACM MM), and Health and Quality of Life Outcomes. In addition, he has been chairing many AI/ML competitions and events, such as reliable intelligence on social media, AI for COVID-19 detection and MLOps challenges.

MLOps Marathon gives 1st prize for extNPH team

HÀ NỘI — MLOps Marathon’s first prize, worth VNĐ100 million (US$6,176), was given to a group of five young people, named extNPH, for its outstanding performance in the contest, late Saturday afternoon in Hà Nội.The team was led by Nguyễn Trọng Tuấn, engineer at VNPT’s AI, which is affiliated with Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group, and provides a high-quality ecosystem of AI solutions.The MLOps competition is a way for developers, engineers and enthusiasts to explore MLOps in a real-world setting. Participants will be able to develop, deploy, and scale their ML model in order to compete for prizes.It consists of three phases: Warm Up, Speed Up, and Finish Up, each with two stages. While all phases involve ML problems, they will vary in difficulty levels and scoring weights.In stage 1 of each phase, teams will be assigned several ML problems and must train models to solve them. Following this, teams will deploy Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on designated remote servers to serve the ML models.In stage 2, the organiser will send batch requests to teams' APIs, and the APIs must return predictions for the data included in the batch requests. Results will be evaluated using both ML metrics, such as Area Under the Curve (AUC) and F1, as well as system metrics, such as response time.Each phase will have different levels of challenge in the data sent in batch requests. This may include bad data, such as outliers, unknown formats, or missing values, as well as drifted data, such as data or concept drift. Teams will be expected to continuously improve their models based on the evaluation results. — VNS