Tran Hoang Dung – Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska, USA has been honored with the SIU Prize Computer Science Gold Prize for his outstanding contributions in the field of learning-enabled cyber-physical systems.
Dr. Tran Hoang Dung’s groundbreaking doctoral thesis titled “Verification of Learning-Enabled Cyber-Physical Systems”, successfully defended in 2020 at Vanderbilt University, USA. His research has not only laid the mathematical foundation for AI safety verification but also introduced novel algorithms and data structures for validating deep neural networks and autonomous systems.
Dr. Tran Hoang Dung is the recipient of the SIU Prize Computer Science Season 1 Gold Prize for his groundbreaking doctoral thesis.
The real-world applications of Dr. Tran Hoang Dung’s work is far-reaching, ensuring safety and robustness for technologies like autonomous vehicles, unmanned aircraft, and advanced neural networks—making his work a cornerstone of modern computing.
Dr. Tran Hoang Dung has published over 40 research articles, many of which have appeared in top-tier journals, conferences in areas such as programming languages and logic, formal methods, cyber-physical systems, neural networks and learning systems. These publications are among the most cited works in recent years, highlighting the global recognition of his contributions. Especially with his significant contributions to the formal verification of learning-enabled systems, Dr. Tran won the prestigious Outstanding Dissertation Award in 2021 from the IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-Physical Systems.
Dr. Tran Hoang Dung’s research achievements include the first verification approach capable of analyzing real-world systems like VGG16 and semantic segmentation networks, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art methods. His visionary approach continues to inspire advancements in AI safety, autonomous systems, and real-time verification.
By the end of 2024, Dr. Tran Hoang Dung has led and participated in numerous research projects funded by prestigious organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Armed Forces, and major corporations like Toyota, with a total funding of approximately 2.6 million USD, of which around 1.92 million USD (73%) was secured in his role as Principal Investigator or Sole Principal Investigator. Notably (in late 2024), his new research direction, “Enabling Trustworthy Complex Learning-enabled Autonomy,” has been recommended for the NSF CAREER award with a grant of 700,000$. This is the most prestigious research award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for young professors in the US.
We are extremely proud to honor Dr. Tran Hoang Dung, whose brilliance and dedication have reinforced the role of Vietnamese intellectuals in shaping the future of technology globally.
| SIU Prize Computer Science Season 1 Gold Prize: VND 2,000,000,000 (Two billion VND) in cash; SIU Prize 18K gold commemorative medal; and a tour worth up to VND 200,000,000 (Two hundred million VND).
In the inaugural season of 2023-2024, the SIU Prize Computer Science received over 100 nominations from 19 countries and territories. The outstanding works covered a wide range of fields: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Network and Information Security, Telecommunications, IoT, Bioinformatics, etc. The nominations went through three rigorous rounds of evaluation by the Preliminary Council, Professional Committee and Professional Council, which consisted of leading professors, scientists, and experts in related fields from prestigious universities, research institutes, and businesses in the United States, Canada, Australia, France, and Vietnam. |
