VP Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, and a member of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring in IALS.
IALS: Hi VP, thank you for speaking with us today. We have a few questions for you so everyone on campus can get to know you better. How long have you been at UMass Amherst?
VPN: I joined UMass Amherst in July 01, 2023.
IALS: Where did you grow up?
VPN: I was born in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, and grew up in a small town surrounded by rivers.
IALS: Does the love of science run in your family?
VPN: My father is a mechanic, and growing up, I got to play with all sorts of mechanical equipment and automated systems. I believe that early exposure is what sparked my lasting passion for "building things".
IALS: How long have you been teaching?
VPN: I've been teaching since September 2020, starting as a tenure track faculty member at the UTA. I've had the opportunity to teach at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. My teaching portfolio has covered subjects such as Algorithms and Data Structures, Mobile Computing, Ubiquitous Computing, and Cyber-Physical Systems. In Spring 2024, I am offering COMPSCI 528 - Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing.
IALS: What is more stressful, grant proposals, research, or teaching?
VPN: This is a tough question. I think they are equally stressful :). Initially, stepping into this professorship brought a lot of stress, yet with time, I've acclimated and found a lot of enjoyment in fulfilling all the responsibilities that come with being an educator. I've learned that producing top-notch work—whether it's papers, proposals, or curriculums—resonates well with readers, reviewers, and students. Rather than letting stress take over, I've redirected my efforts to improving the quality of our papers, proposals, and curriculums. Moreover, the environment at CICS @ UMass has been instrumental in easing my stress levels further. Surrounded by colleagues who excel as both world-class researchers and remarkably respectful teachers, I've had an incredible environment to continuously learn and grow.
IALS: Assuming your research is widely successful, how will it impact society?
VPN: My broad research interests are in the areas of mobile/wearable computing, wireless networking, and embedded systems, where I have been focusing a lot on translational research. My group has focused on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and its applications in disease monitoring, intervention, and prevention. If successful, our developed technologies will significantly improve the current healthcare practice, making healthcare services more accessible by developing mobile/wearable health technologies that are portable, reliable, socially acceptable, comfortable to wear/use at home, and low-cost. To achieve this, we have been working closely with domain experts (medical doctors and caregivers) and end users (patients) to develop and evaluate our solutions not only in the lab but also in clinical settings. We try to thoroughly confirm the robustness, usability, and practicality, aiming to bridge the gap between research prototypes and tangible products. I hope to see many of our lab prototypes enter the market in the near future.
IALS: Who do you admire and why?
VPN: I admired Albert Einstein's ability to connect different fields and challenge conventional thinking to advance scientific frontiers. His legacy continually motivates me. It fuels my drive to break norms, challenge boundaries, and work on unexplored research territories. Inspired by his approach, my work is interdisciplinary in nature, where we develop new techniques in sensor and sensing system development, algorithms, data analytics, signal processing, hardware, and firmware optimization to invent a new class of nature-inspired bio-inspired "medical devices" and "living ground/aerial systems". We aim to make fundamental research contributions in computer systems while offering deployment-ready solutions to address real-world problems in non-traditional ways.
IALS: What are your interests when you are not a scientist?
VPN: Hiking is a passion of mine, and I have embarked on numerous trails in Western Mass. My family is continuously discovering new trails and enjoying the beauty of the area.
IALS: Thank you so much VP!