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Opening Speech of Professor Phan Thanh Binh President of Vietnam National Universities – Ho Chi Minh City at the 5th International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam on June 16, 2014 in HCM city Distinguished guests, Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the Board of Presidents of the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, I would like to extend my warmest welcome to all of you for joining the 5th International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam. This Conference is a kick-off event to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM).
VNU-HCM is one of the two largest and most distinguished university systems in Vietnam. It was founded in January 1995 and currently VNU-HCM has 6 university members and several research institutions for a total of more than 4,300 staff (including 2,400 teaching staff), and 51,000 full-time undergraduate, 6,000 Master and 420 PhD students. International University (IU) is a special member of VNU-HCM. It was established in December 2003 as a new model to modernize the higher education in Vietnam. I highly value the effort of IU to successfully cooperate with national and international universities and institutions in the organization of this biennial Conference.
Five years ago, in February 2009 Prof. Vo Van Toi, then the founder of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Tufts University in the US and Executive Director of the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), a US federal agency, returned home to build the Biomedical Engineering (BME) at VNU-HCM from scratch. In March 2009 the BME Department was established at IU, and in August, the BME undergraduate program was accredited by VNU-HCM. In Jan 2012 the Master’s degree program was established and accredited. VNU-HCM allocated almost 1 million US dollars from 2010 to 2012 to develop BME research labs. In addition, IU has greatly invested in the BME program to bring it up to the today level. I am very glad to see that within 5 years Prof. Vo Van Toi has successfully established fruitful collaborations with national and international professionals, educators and researchers as well as received support from both private and public sectors like Saigon Hi-Tech Park.
BME is a new field in Vietnam. To sustain its research and education growth it is necessary to have a related industry go in tandem, similarly a biomedical industry can only flourish if it has a strong collaboration with the university. Medical device industry, an urgent need of the country is still in its development. Therefore a solid link between education, research and entrepreneurship as well as between university and industry must be established as soon as possible. Hence, I strongly support Professor Vo Van Toi on-going initiatives in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, Arizona State University, USA and Duke University, USA to establish the appropriate model for Vietnam which can be emulated to other developing countries.
To the Vietnamese diasporas present today, I greatly appreciate your contributions to the Conference. Our country has made steady progress and strived to reverse brain drain. I would like to invite you to come home to contribute to the construction of our country. You will certainly face many challenges. They are different from those you have encountered where you are living. Here, we are with you to overcome them and help you to develop your own values that you may not find elsewhere. VNU-HCM aims to be the niche of BME in Vietnam and developing countries. Your contributions will help us to fulfill this mission. Now, I solemnly declare the opening of the 5th International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering. I wish all participants 3 fruitful working days, and an enjoyable and memorable stay in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam.
Thank you.
Press Release on the Fifth International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam
Following the success of 4 previous International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2014,International Universityof Vietnam National Universities in Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), organizes the 5th one that occursin Ho Chi Minh City from June 16-18, 2014. Professor Vo Van Toi of this institution was the Conference General Chair. This Fifth International Conference is a very special event. It officially opens the season for celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Vietnam National Universities – Ho Chi Minh City. It also marks the 10th Anniversary of International University and the 5th Anniversary of the Biomedical Engineering Department. This Conference features 231 papers of 532 authors and co-authors from 26 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam. Almost all Vietnamese institutions have their delegations. Besides Vietnam the 2 countries that have the most contributors are the USA and Australia. The plenary session features the lectures on the progress in different fields of Biomedical Engineering by distinguished keynote speakers such as Prof. Ratko Magjarevic, President of IFMBE; Dr. Robert A. Lieberman, Vice-President of International Society for Optics and Photonics SPIE; Prof. Vo-Dinh Tuan, Director of Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, USA; Prof. Christian Griesinger, Director of Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany; Prof. AnjaBoisen, Director of VKR Centre Of Excellence ‘NAMEC’, Denmark; Prof. Yin Xiao, Director of Australia-China Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Prof. Yukio Nagasaki, Department of Materials Science and Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan; and Prof. Fong-Chin Su, President of Taiwanese Society of Biomedical Engineering, Director, Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. The contributed papers will continue to be published in the IFMBE Proceedings Series by Springer. The social events are also organized to introduce to the international guests the Vietnamese culture. The Proceedings of the conference will be published by Springer in the "IFMBE Proceedings Series" We would like to thank the following sponsors: Vietnam National Universities –HCMC and International University Office of Naval Research Global, Arizona State University,Alberta University,VikoMed,Trung Sơn (T.S.S.E.), Saigon Instrumentation Joint Stock Company (Saigon ISC), ITS Vietnam, Saigon Scientists, and National Instruments. Special for this year SPIE (USA), Technical Co-sponsor, gave two awards to student papers in the field of Biophotonics. During the Conference the Judge Panel members who consisted of Dr. Robert A. Lieberman, Vice-President of International Society for Optics and Photonics SPIE and Professor Vo-Dinh Tuan, Director of Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, USA have selected the following winners:
Notes: Vietnam National Universities in Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) is one of the two leading university networks in Vietnam. It reports directly to the Prime Minister of the country. It was established in 1995 by merging the elite public universities in the city which have a long tradition and great reputation. It has more than 4,300 staff (2,400 teaching staff), and 51,000 full-time undergraduate, 5,900 Master and 420 PhD students. International University (IU) of VNU-HCM was established in 2003 to be a platform to promote the reform of higher education in Vietnam. It is the first public university that teaches all courses in English. It has extensive collaborations with many universities in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. At IU there are almost 5,000 students, 200 faculty and more than 80 staff. The Biomedical Engineering Department (BME) at IU was established in 2009. It is the first in the country that offers the accredited degree of Engineer in Biomedical Engineering (an equivalent of the BS BME in the U.S.). Its activities concentrate on the Design and Applications of Medical Devices to satisfy the urgent need of the country. It promotes the close relationship between Education, Research and Entrepreneurship. Its motto is: High Quality, Sustainability and Usefulness. It has 200 undergraduate students, 10 graduate students and 12 faculty and staff. Professor Vo Van Toi, Chair of the BME Department, obtained his Ph.D in Micro-Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland in 1983. From 1983-1984 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Health Science and Technology Division (HST), a joint program of Harvard-MIT (USA). From 1984 to 2009 he was a faculty of the School of Engineering at Tufts University. He was co-chair of the joint educational programs between the School of Engineering and School of Medicine, and between the School of Engineering and School of Dental Medicine. From 1991 to 1992 he was on sabbatical from Tufts to be a Research Professor at the Scheie Eye Research Institute of University of Pennsylvania (USA). From 1992 to 1994 he helped create and was the Vice-Director of the Eye Research Institute in Sion (Switzerland). He was instrumental in establishing the BME Department at Tufts in 2003. From 2004 to 2007 he was nominated by President G. Bush to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), a U.S. federal agency established by the U.S. Congress to bring the U.S. and Vietnam closer through educational exchanges related to science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, and technology. From 2007 to 2009 he was on leave from Tufts to be the Executive Director of VEF. In 2009 he resigned from VEF and took an early retirement from Tufts to go back to Vietnam to establish and chair the BME Department at IU. His research interests include: Design and Applications of Medical Devices, Mechanism of Human Visual System, Ophthalmology, and Telemedicine. For more information, please contact: Professor Vo Van Toi, Chair Biomedical Engineering Department International University - Vietnam National Universities Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel: (84-8) - 37 24 42 70 Ext. 3237 Website: www.hcmiu.edu.vn/bme Email: vvtoi@hcmiu.edu.vn
Acknowledgements: We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the international invited speakers who have graciously accepted our invitation to come to enhance the value of the conference.
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